Historical fiction in Paris

I blogged earlier this summer about David McCullough's newest book, "The Greater Journey, Americans in Paris." Having never been to Paris, I felt like the book gave me a very good sense of the history of Paris as well as a 'feel' for Paris. It was great preparation for some historical fiction with Paris as the setting. When I reserved these two books online, I truly had no idea that each story would take me back to Paris.

"Sarah's Key" begins in a mind numbing way as a young Jewish girl locks her little brother in a hidden closet hoping that it will bring him safety as the girl and her parents are taken away in a round up of Jews. This particular round-up is not organized by the Germans but the French, making it all the more horrific.

The author goes back and forth between the 1940's in German occupied Paris and the present day. An American in Paris, who has married a French man, finds herself inexplicibly drawn into the tale of Sarah and her key as she researches and writes an article for a current magazine. Then the story takes another turn when she finds that her French family also has ties to Sarah and her story. We also learn that the French are finally taking ownership for their part in the actual round-up of Jews that occurred under their watch.

I discovered through Google that a movie entitled "Sarah's Key" which is based on this historical novel was released in July. I hope that I can see it soon.

A former American aviator who was shot down over Belgium and rescued by the French resistance, returns to Paris after a forced retirement from his job as an airline pilot in "The Girl in the Blue Beret." It is 1980 and he is only 60 years old, a widower of two years, and now finds himself feeling a need to find out more about those who were willing to risk their lives to save his. As his research takes him into the lives of those who once helped him, he finds that there are many twists and turns in their stories and for one man in particular a life of great sadness.

What about the girl in the blue beret you may ask? Yes, she, too is found and the reader learns that she is the true survivor of this tale who in her own way rescues the American aviator once more. The author wrote this book after learning of the experiences of her grandfather during WWII.

Both books provided another glimpse into the complicated maze that is World War II and gave this reader another glimpse of Paris in a more recent time.