The Paris Library: A Novel

Three days into the war, Miss Reeder creates the Soldiers’ Service. To comfort the troops, the Library will prepare and ship “collections of books for canteens and field hospitals” (117). Odile persuades the skeptical French press of its value, and word gets out. As a result, donations pour into the Library, and the program is wonderfully successful. The staff sends out thousands of books and periodicals. Soldiers make requests and send thank-you notes.

Bitsi reports to Odile that she has received a letter from Rémy and that he’s safe. Odile resents that Rémy wrote to Bitsi before his family, but a letter arrives from him two days later. In corresponding with him, Odile confesses her conflicting feelings toward Paul—that she hopes for love yet fears it too, as she has witnessed unfaithful men and thus worries that his love won’t last. Rémy tells her to believe in love and asks her to take care of Bitsi—with whom Odile isn’t speaking.

Miss Reeder chastises Odile for not speaking to Bitsi and sends her to the American Hospital to volunteer for one week to “put things in perspective” (126). Feeling like “a fleck of dust Miss Reeder had wiped off a shelf” (126), Odile nonetheless applies herself to the assignment wholeheartedly. She reads to one of the wounded men and worries about Rémy. He asked her to take care of Bitsi, and Odile realizes that she must repair that relationship. She returns to the Library and invites Bitsi to tea. Later, Odile and Paul finally profess their love to one another.

News comes that German troops have “penetrated Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands” (129). They’ve also bombed the north and east of France. Since Rémy is in the north, Odile fears for him. Miss Reeder recommends that Odile return to the hospital to ask after Rémy. She does so and helps an American soldier write a letter home. She’s ready to go home after a long and exhausting day, but another soldier asks her not to leave. She stays with him through the night, telling him about all the personalities at the Library. Describing Mr. Pryce-Jones as “a crane wearing a paisley bow tie” (132), Odile describes his disputes with his French friend, “a walrus with a bushy mustache” (132). She then tells him about Madame Simon, the gossip, and holds his hand until he dies.

Odile is just blocks from the Library when the city is bombed. When the bombing stops, she goes to the Library, and Boris gives her a cup of whiskey to calm her. While the newspapers tell Parisians that France is winning, Mr. Pryce-Jones takes Odile aside to inform her that isn’t the case. At Dunkirk, the Germans surrounded Allied troops. “English ships sailed over to save their soldiers” (136), but almost no British military was on the continent. Given that Odile’s brother is in the army, Mr. Pryce-Jones feels that she should know the truth.

Paris is flooded with refugees from rural areas in the northeast of France who are fleeing German soldiers. When the British embassy tells its staff to leave Paris, Margaret drives to Brittany with her husband and daughter. German soldiers enter Paris. Odile wakes to loudspeakers proclaiming that “Protests and hostile acts against German troops are punishable by death” (141).

Occupied Paris is unrecognizable. The streets are empty, public transportation isn’t running, and German soldiers patrol. Miss Reeder works on written correspondence to convince the President of the Board in New York to allow the American Library to stay open. The American Ambassador, Bill Bullitt, visits Miss Reeder at work. Acknowledging that they’re both staying in Paris against the advice of their government, he convinces Miss Reeder to move to Le Bristol Hotel with the other remaining Americans. She agrees to do so. When she returns to her apartment to gather her belongings, the concierge informs her that the Nazis, only three days in Paris, already went to the Polish Library and stole everything. Miss Reeder knows that she will soon face the enemy.

Writing to Rémy, Odile assures him that she’s taking good care of Bitsi and describes life under Nazi occupation in Paris. Odile’s father kept her home for the first 10 days of the occupation, but she’s now back at the Library. There she learns that the English attacked French battleships, killing over 1,000 sailors, after the French refused an ultimatum to surrender them. The English feared that the Nazis would confiscate the ships. Journalist M. de Nerciat predictably takes out his anger on Mr. Pryce-Jones. The pair temporarily stop speaking to each other. France cuts diplomatic ties with England. Odile’s father phones and tells her to come home. Fearing bad news about Rémy, she fetches Bitsi, and they rush to Odile’s home.

Lily’s father marries Eleanor in the same church where Lily’s mother’s funeral took place. Lily can’t help remembering scenes from the funeral. Although Odile comforts her, Lily doesn’t yet consider Eleanor a friend. While her father and Eleanor are on their honeymoon, Lily stays with Odile. Recommending the book The Outsiders to Lily, Odile helps her realize that she can find family among kindred spirits and a place for herself in the world. Lily understands that she’ll “always have a place with Odile” (152). Curious about Odile’s past, Lily snoops in her papers when Mary Louise is visiting. She finds a letter urging Odile to contact her parents before it’s “too late.”

When Lily’s father returns from his honeymoon, he instructs his daughter to spend more time at home. Lily doesn’t want to give up her relationship with Odile but concedes to spend more time at home. At first, Lily is annoyed when Eleanor gives her chores to do. Over time, though, she realizes that Eleanor isn’t all bad and eventually grows to like her. Odile remains a big part of her life and increasingly becomes part of the family, even sharing holiday meals with them. Lily likes Eleanor’s mother, Grandma Pearl, who visits at Christmas. It’s then that Eleanor announces her pregnancy, and she later gives birth to a baby boy, Joe. In making room for the baby, Eleanor attempts to throw out many of Lily’s mother’s things. Lily rescues some of these items and keeps them in her room.

A few months after Joe is born, Eleanor is frustrated at her inability to lose weight. Odile tells Eleanor that she’s pregnant again. This time, Eleanor isn’t well, and the doctor diagnoses high blood pressure. By this point, Lily has grown attached to Eleanor and is terrified that she’ll die, as her mother did.

Odile’s father informs her and Bitsi that Rémy is alive but is a prisoner of war. Her father doesn’t have any news about Bitsi’s brother, Julien, but Bitsi later learns that he too has been taken prisoner. The letter contains only two lines, saying that Rémy is a prisoner and is injured. Odile’s mother suffers a breakdown and can’t get out of bed. When her father invites Eugénie to nurse her, Odile recognizes but can’t quite place her. Soon she remembers that Eugénie is her father’s mistress, which angers Odile. However, she observes the tender way that Eugénie cares for her mother and learns that Eugénie lost a child, a toddler, in World War I. Eventually, she grows to like Eugénie.

Finally, letters arrive from Rémy. He reports that he’s healing and asks the family to send him some items, including food if possible. The family does so, using up their weekly meat ration. At the Library, Margaret returns, to Odile’s delight. Her husband, Lawrence, is working in southern France, but Margaret doesn’t much care where he is. Odile’s love and rock, Paul—who has been away working on his aunt’s farm—is back in Paris too. However, he’s frustrated with the work the Nazis have assigned him—to direct traffic and clean up graffiti, which he finds humiliating.

Already, the Nazis have seized the book collections of Jewish citizens, including Professor Cohen’s. It’s imminent that the Nazis will come to the American Library. When they do, Miss Reeder is relieved to discover that the Chief Inspector, or “Library Protector,” Dr. Fuchs, is a fellow librarian from Berlin. He tells her that certain books can no longer be circulated but needn’t be destroyed. Miss Reeder feels that the Library has dodged a bullet—until he stipulates, as he departs, that “certain people may no longer enter” (179) the Library.

With Clara’s support, the Library staff decides to deliver books to the homes of Jewish patrons, who are now denied access to the building. While they risk arrest, they consider it a way of resisting. Avoid the Nazi checkpoints is difficult, as their locations change all the time. Odile is tasked with taking a bundle of books to Professor Cohen’s apartment. As friends donate books to the Professor, she’s slowly rebuilding her vast collection that the Nazis took from her. They even took her diaries. The Professor, who has become Odile’s favorite author, is typing away, at work on a new book, when Odile arrives.

The Library’s British bookkeeper, Miss Wedd, is arrested and sent to a camp. Because of this development, Miss Reeder advises the Library’s foreign staff to leave. Peter, the stacker, and Helen, the reference librarian—who are now engaged to one another—depart. Odile is promoted to reference librarian, but she the departure and arrest of her colleagues saddens her. In addition, the police receive an anonymous tip about Professor Cohen’s Jewish identity.

With food scarce, Paul surprises Odile with tickets to a cabaret. They have a wonderful evening of dining and dancing. Afterward, Paul tells Odile that he’s glad she’s independent because he’s had to take care of his mother since his father left. He clearly resents his mother’s weakness. While he remains aloof on the walk home, Odile embraces him at her door and they long for each other. Interrupted by her mother, Odile asks Paul to find a place where they can be alone. He later does so, and the two make love in an abandoned apartment. Delivering another bundle of books to Professor Cohen, Odile reports that Mr. Pryce-Jones and M. de Nerciat are speaking again and are back to their bickering. The pair will visit the Professor later.

Arriving at the Library, Odile notices immediately that something is “dreadfully wrong” (198). The trustees in New York have ordered Miss Reeder to leave for the US because when the US enters the war—which is only a matter of time—she’d be arrested if she stayed in France. Among Miss Reeder’s belongings, Odile finds a letter written but not sent to parents. Like so many, Miss Reeder wrote about the difficult conditions under the occupation but shielded her parents from that knowledge. The remaining and dwindling staff “bid the Directress farewell” (201).

Eleanor struggles to care for her two babies, one of whom is colicky, and manage the household chores. Increasingly, she relies on Lily to help change Benjy’s diapers and comfort him. It’s hard for Lily to take French lessons from Odile because Eleanor often calls her back home. Fighting to stay awake in school, Lily’s grades slip. Odile advises Lily to stand up for herself. Visiting her father at work, Lily describes the situation and insists that she wants to go to college. At first he resists, but Lily argues that her mother didn’t want her to be a nanny. That night, uncharacteristically, her father comes home two hours late, and the roast is burnt. Fed up, Eleanor throws the roast at him and tells him that he must help more. Eleanor and Lily’s father begin to make some changes. At Odile’s, Lily sees some photos from wartime and starts to hear bits of the past about Miss Reeder and the Nazi librarian, Dr. Fuchs.