The Dressmaker’s Gift
In 2017, Englishwoman Harriet, a recent business graduate, is in Paris. She works as an intern for a fashion PR agency, but she’s also on a quest to uncover her past. Her mother committed suicide, and her father never told her much about her French mother or family. In an old 1941 photograph, Harriet discovers and sees her grandmother, Claire, with two other Frenchwomen. They stood on Rue Cardinale outside the same building where Harriet works and lives in an upstairs apartment. Harriet is flabbergasted when her flatmate, Simone, informs her that her grandmother is also in the same photograph. Simone agrees to tell Harriet all she knows about the three ladies who worked as seamstresses and lived in the same building during the WWII years. Harriet pieces together the three women’s lives: how they’d lived through the Nazi occupation, dealt with attentions from the German officers, worked for the French Resistance, and suffered in concentration camps. Harriet, while enjoying the life of a Parisienne—despite the terror attacks—learns that her family’s history is more disturbing than she’d thought.
Fiona Valpy’s intimate knowledge of France shows in the storyline. It reads as if we are walking alongside the characters in Paris. The novel, through the lives of the individuals, illuminates the hardships the French faced during the Nazi occupation years during WWII. The twin-period narration works well to contrast Paris during and after the war. The inclusion of the terror attacks (although in reality, earlier than 2017) is an exciting addition that’s a reminder of the ever-present horrors of tyranny. The novel includes the concept of “inherited trauma” that Harriet thinks was passed on to her mother from Claire. But it’s heartening, as Valpy notes, that it’s possible to recover from it.
