The Paris Library: A Novel

Unable to avoid a checkpoint, Margaret is arrested for her British citizenship and taken to a cell. In the cell are two other women, both British, who are kind to her. When more are arrested, they’ll all be sent to an internment camp. In the cell, Margaret remembers attending her first diplomatic function with her husband, Lawrence. When he learned that Margaret couldn’t speak French, the language of diplomacy, he was disgusted and never touched her again. Margaret previously told him that she’d studied French, which was true, but she did poorly in the subject. As Margaret reads to the other women, a Nazi guard overhears her. The guard enters the cell in the middle of the night and tells Margaret that she can leave. However, she won’t do so without the others. The guard allows all three to go on the condition that Margaret meet with him to continue reading the book.

An anonymous letter informs on Clara and accuses Boris of visiting the homes of Jewish readers. Odile is increasingly thin, like many Parisians, and her father wonders why she hasn’t married. When Odile visits Professor Cohen later that day, she complains about her father and tells of her secret engagement to Paul. They toast the engagement. On her way home, Odile sees a girl with a yellow star for the first time and feels guilty for complaining to Professor Cohen.

Margaret appears happy and can obtain food, which she shares with Odile. Assuming that Margaret is selling paintings from her lavish apartment, Odile is relieved to send food to her brother Rémy and his friend Marcel.

The anonymous informant is now reporting on the Library to the Kommandant, above the police inspector. Odile observes someone trying to steal a periodical and assumes that this person is a “mole” (239). Noticing that Bitsi is depressed, Odile invites her to come to Professor Cohen’s apartment to deliver books. The Professor has completed her book, but no French company will publish it because she’s Jewish. She gives the manuscript, entitled The American Library, to Odile to protect.

Before the Library opens the next day, Dr. Fuchs comes alone to warn the staff that the Gestapo, which is about to take control of Paris, is “laying traps” (242). Paul and Odile’s secret place is no longer vacant, but Paul has the keys to another apartment. As get ready to leave after their tryst, Paul and Odile are shocked when someone enters and kicks them out. They wonder whose apartments have been vacated.

When Margaret fails to show up at the Library, Odile goes to her apartment and finds her ill. Margaret tells her about Felix, the guard, and his gifts. Initially angry, Odile soon realizes Margaret’s predicament when arrested and decides to continue accepting gifts from her.

Dr. Fuchs summons Clara to his office, and she brings Odile with her. Dr. Fuchs explains that someone has accused the Library of holding anti-Hitler tracts and circulating banned books. He tells the pair to keep such books under lock and key. He is careful not to allow his secretary to hear this friendly warning. The previous evening, someone had tried to follow Odile when she ran books to Professor Cohen’s residence. She was able to lose the man. However, Clara decides that she will close the Library tomorrow, Bastille Day, a couple weeks before the typical August closure.

Boris and his wife, Anna, are enjoying an evening playing cards with friends. Their friends tell Boris that they’re hiding a boy in their home. The Gestapo bangs on the door and enters. Recognizing the mole at the Library leading the group, Boris laughs, remembering that Odile had said that he should pay a subscription. The Nazi shoots Boris in the chest.

At Mary Louise’s house, she and Lily go through the things of her older sister, Angel, and Lily finds birth control pills. However, Eleanor and Odile catch Lily snooping and chastise her. Eleanor isn’t mad, but Odile warns Lily that “nothing [is] worse than divulging someone’s secrets” (258).

With Eleanor’s encouragement, Odile is finally taking a trip to Chicago to visit her friend Lucienne. When Eleanor supports Lily’s appeal to her father to let her get a driver’s license, he accuses Eleanor of taking her side, and they argue. Mary Louise and Lily escape to water Odile’s plants while she’s away. There, Lily can’t resist the temptation to go through Odile’s personal belongings. Finding a letter informing on Professor Cohen, Lily assumes that Odile wrote it. Lily tears the letter up, and Odile walks into the room. Standing her ground, Lily asks Odile who she is.

Odile learns that Boris was shot in the lung but is alive. He was to be deported, but Clara’s appeal to Dr. Fuchs prevents that. Boris is transferred from the Gestapo’s hospital to the American Hospital, where he finally gets decent care. The Library staff, including Margaret (who was away with Felix), visit him there. When Margaret asks Odile to meet Felix, Odile refuses in anger despite his life-saving contributions to her and Rémy. In the post, Odile receives a heartbreaking letter from Rémy, who says that he’s severely ill and likely won’t write again. Soon thereafter, the family receives word of his death. Odile and her mother are shattered.

Making every decision with his commitment to Odile in mind, Paul remains in his job at Paris and doesn’t abandon his duties to flee to the free zone in southern France. As a police officer, he’s tasked with rounding up Jewish citizens for “random checks.” He escorts these individuals to the police station. Today, he knocks on Professor Cohen’s door, and she recognizes him as Odile’s fiancé. When she asks Paul to give a book with the American Library marking to Odile, he suggests that she do it herself when she returns from the station. Professor Cohen comments that he is naive.

After staying with her mother for 10 days after news of Rémy’s death, Odile returns to the Library, where she’s sorely needed. Margaret apologizes for asking her to meet Felix, and Boris is back working but looks gaunt. After Odile has a strange conversation with Paul, in which he describes his work as “bizarre” but says no more, he avoids Odile for over a week. Odile worries that he has found another woman.

Sent to deliver books to Professor Cohen, Odile finds the apartment empty. Paul, returning to Odile, confesses that he arrested the Professor. Odile visits the Professor’s apartment again to find Madame Simon’s son and daughter-in-law living there. The scold at the Library clearly informed on Professor Cohen. Odile is horrified to think that the apartments that she and Paul had used for their assignations were confiscated from Jewish citizens. Asking her father for help in locating Professor Cohen, Odile is stunned to find out that his job is to follow up on anonymous tips. She sees the many informants’ letters at his office. He refuses to help. Clara has learned that the Professor has disappeared from the detention center. The Professor’s friends at the Library hope that she escaped.

Odile decides to steal some of the informants’ letters from her father’s office. These notes are referred to as crow letters, as they come from “black-hearted” people. Thinking that she can save at least some people from arrest, Odile goes to her father’s office and puts a bunch of letters in her satchel. While her father is not there, she comes close to being caught by others at the police station. Initially mute with fear, Odile manages to say that she was trying to visit her father. When the officers hear this, they immediately release her. Her decision to continue this strategy is a source of great stress for Odile. Not knowing the cause of her stress, her mother advises her to rest while she and her father attend church. Paul comes to the door, bloodied, after he beat up a drunken Nazi. She takes him inside for safety, and he asks for her forgiveness.

At a meeting of the dwindling Library staff, Clara announces that Mr. Pryce-Jones has been arrested and sent to an internment camp for being an “enemy alien.” In shock, Odile casts aside thoughts of getting in trouble, runs to her father’s office, and starts ripping up letters and putting others in her satchel. Her father walks into the office and tells her that he has received inquiries about earlier correspondence not investigated. Given his investigation of every accusation, he was puzzled until now. He tells his daughter that traitors are sentenced to death. When she says that he wouldn’t be blamed, he scoffs and tells her to go home and “never come back” (292).

While Odile could have forgiven Lily’s snooping, Lily’s assumption that she was the informant enrages her. She asked, “What have I done to make you think I could be capable of such evil?” (294). To Lily’s devastation, Odile cuts her out of her life. Despite multiple appeals, she won’t see Lily or speak to her. To cheer Lily up, Eleanor takes her to a bigger town, Good Hope, and lets her drive most of the way. They purchase lipstick and have lunch. Lily feels a closer bond than ever to Eleanor. On the return trip, they spot smoke near their home. Odile’s house is ablaze, but she’s safely outside. Distraught and feeling guilty about the fate of Professor Cohen, Odile apologizes to Lily and tells her about her experiences during the occupation. Odile will stay with Lily’s family until her house is repaired. Lily has learned some of Odile’s story but feels like a piece of the puzzle is missing: Why didn’t Odile marry Paul?