Paris Undercover by Matthew Goodman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I've differing opinions about this book, so I'm arguing with myself on how I rate this book. Was it a three because a lot of it was repetitive? Was it a five because of the history that I learned? Was it a two because I couldn't handle the torture scenes? Was it a three because a lot of the book didn't really follow the lives of the two women? Was it a five because of all the research that went into this book? I probably shouldn't give it a star rating because I'm so torn. I also must have missed how one friend betrayed the other. I couldn't see it as a problem with Etta but a problem with her ghostwriters/publishers.
This is the perfect book for those who want to take a look at the war, not from the English side but from the French side. An excellent book for those who want to see the actual repercussions of the war and its aftermath on women who did their bit to fight the Nazis.
This is an excellent read for book clubs and scholars.
*ARC supplied by the publisher Ballantine Books/Random House Publishing Group, the author, and NetGalley.
View all my reviews
SYNOPSIS: "Two women in Nazi-occupied Paris created a daring escape line that rescued dozens of Allied servicemen. With one in a German prison camp, the other wrote a book about it—a memoir that was built on lies. Now the bestselling author of Eighty Days shares their incredible, never-before-told full story.
Etta Shiber and Kitty Bonnefous are the unlikeliest of two seemingly ordinary women, an American widow and an English divorcée, living quietly together in Paris. Yet during the Nazi occupation, these two friends find themselves unexpectedly plunged into the whirlwind of history. With the help of a French country priest and others, they rescue untold numbers of British and French soldiers trapped behind enemy lines—some of whom they daringly smuggle through Nazi checkpoints in the trunk of their car.
Ultimately the Gestapo captures them both. After eighteen months in prison, Etta, a New Yorker of Jewish descent, is returned to the United States in a prisoner exchange. Back home, hoping to bring attention to her friend Kitty’s bravery, Etta publishes a memoir about their work. Paris-Underground becomes a publishing sensation and Etta a celebrity. Meanwhile Kitty spends the rest of the war in solitary confinement in a Nazi prison, entirely unaware of the book that has been written about her – and the deeds that have been claimed in her name.
In researching this story, Matthew Goodman uncovered military records, personal testimonies, and Etta Shiber’s own never-before-seen wartime letters. Together they reveal, for the first time, the shocking truth behind Etta's bestselling memoir and the unexpected, far-reaching consequences of its publication. More than just a story of two women’s remarkable courage, Paris Undercover is also a vivid, gripping account of deceit, betrayal, and personal redemption'.
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