The Postmistress of Paris by Meg Waite Clayton

​
The Postmistress of Paris, Meg Waite Clayton, Harper, 2021, 27.99, pb, 416 pp, 978-0-06-294698-0
 

“That was something she’d learned early: when to draw attention to herself and when to avoid it. Evanston rules.”


Paris, 1938

A decade into her exile from Evanston society, heiress, pilot, and expat Nanѐe lands her Vega Gull and sweeps into the Gallerie des Beaux-Arts wearing her flight jacket and white silk scarf over a black Chanel dress--Aero-Chanel she calls the look—drawing the attention and interest of Jewish photojournalist Edouard Moss: father, recent widow, and refugee from Nazi Germany. Moss’s most intimate photograph, Salvation, attracts and interests Nanѐe. As does the artist himself.
       Marseilles, 1939
       Hitler’s growing list of enemies—writers, artists, and journalists—now includes Moss, who is living with his young daughter, Luki, in Provence. When he realizes they must flee, he engages a friend to accompany Luki on a separate train; they will meet in Paris. But en route, Moss is arrested and incarcerated.
       Nanѐe now works for the Resistance as Postmistress, covertly delivering coded messages and forged documents to sequestered refugees attempting to flee France. When she learns that Moss has been taken, she draws on the Evanston rules: first attracting the attention of a commandant and securing Moss’s release papers, and then passing unnoticed as she searches for Luki. Her plan?         To reunite father and daughter and smuggle them to freedom even as all avenues of escape are closing.
       Inspired by the life-story of American heiress Mary Jane Gold, this fast-moving narrative slips seamlessly between locations, characters, and subplots. With its breathtaking turns, back-street meets, and an intensifying attraction between Nanѐe and Moss, Meg Waite Clayton’s tale portrays a quiet woman who, fueled by courage and dedication, chooses to risk her life breaking laws rather than save it by returning home to a stifling society life governed by Evanston rules.
       Recommended.

Originally published in Historical Novels Review, Issue 99, February 2022
Citation: Kightlinger, Rebecca. "The Postmistress of Paris, Historical Novels Review, Issue 99: February 2022.

All rights reserved.

---

published review

visit the author's website