“Someone was listening. Sometimes that’s all a person needed.”
April’s Vogt’s life and marriage are at a standstill when she is offered the opportunity to go to Paris for work. Her skills as a furniture appraiser for an auction company are needed when an apartment is discovered untouched after 70 years. It was locked up before the Nazi occupation of Paris and the owner never returned, yet still paid rent. April dives into the work, finding solace in the distance she is putting between herself and her husband, not realizing that it’s been her defense mechanism her entire life until the cards all come falling down.
I had seen many good reviews of A Paris Apartment and chose it as the March Online Book Club book for my blog. I bought it when it was on sale through BookBub for my Kindle. It’s Michelle Gable’s first book and she was inspired to write it based on an actual apartment being found untouched after 70 years (read the article here).
As April sorts through the treasures, she also tries to sort through the life of the woman who lived in the apartment by reading the journals she left behind. Her view of Marthe does little to explain why no relative has wanted to claim the items in the apartment – at least to April. Her view is clouded by her own desire to find an armoire that belonged to her mother before Alzheimer’s took her from April’s life. Her father sold anything he could to help pay for his wife’s care. Her husband waits to hear her decision about their marriage (he cheated once and confessed) and her confusion intensifies when she feels a spark with Luc, a solicitor she is working with in Paris. Finally pulled back to her American world by a tragic event, April learns to live with her reality and starts living without being afraid of the worst happening.
I really enjoyed reading this book and I think any adult would. It would be a terrific book club book – I know I wanted to talk to people about it as soon as I finished reading it. If you do read it, let me now. I’d love to know what you thought!
After you read it, join our online book club discussion!
Buy the book here (affiliate link).