“Secretly, Lucien was ashamed that he was so useless to his country. Sometimes, he felt guilty that he was alive.”

Books set during World War II tend to stick with me and this one will. Paris was a city under German control, but Parisians had certain freedoms as long as they didn’t sympathize with the Resistance or hide Jews. Lucien was more than happy to follow these rules until he got an offer he couldn’t refuse.

I saw good reviews of this book in the book review magazines and added it to my to-read list. It falls in the same genre for me as The Book Thief and Sarah’s Key – haunting stories set during WWII.

Lucien is an architect and is offered a great sum of money to design a hiding spot in an apartment. At first, he is persuaded by the amount of money, future architectural jobs and the idea of out-smarting the Germans. He tries to keep his distance, but when he is offered to design a second and then a third hiding spot, he starts to see the humanity of the Jewish people around him.

This book is definitely for adults as there are several scenes of Nazi torture and adult interaction. It is enough to remind you of the evilness of the Nazis and how much Lucien is risking to hide Jews in Paris.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes historical fiction and enjoyed Sarah’s Key and The Book Thief.