Review: The Librarian of Saint-Malo

Author: Mario Escobar

Publisher: 1st June 2021 by Thomas Nelson

Pages: 384  pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: historical fiction, world war II

My Rating: 3.5 crowns

Synopsis:

Libraries are being ransacked. France is torn apart by war. A French librarian is determined to resist. Told through smuggled letters to an author, an ordinary librarian describes the brutal Nazi occupation of her small coastal village and the extraordinary measures she takes to fight back.

Saint-Malo, France: August 1939. Jocelyn and Antoine are childhood sweethearts, but just after they marry, Antoine is drafted to fight against Germany. As World War II rages, Jocelyn uses her position as a librarian in her town of Saint-Malo to comfort and encourage her community with books. Jocelyn begins to write secret letters smuggled to a famous Parisian author, telling her story in the hope that it will someday reach the outside world.

France falls and the Nazis occupy Jocelyn's town, turning it into a fortress. The townspeople try passive resistance, but the German commander ruthlessly begins to destroy part of the city's libraries. Books deemed unsuitable by the Nazis are burnt or stolen, and priceless knowledge is lost.

Risking arrest and even her life, Jocelyn manages to hide some of the books while desperately waiting to receive news from her husband Antoine, now a prisoner in a German camp.

Jocelyn's mission unfolds in her letters: to protect the people of Saint-Malo and the books they hold so dear. Mario Escobar brings to life the occupied city in sweeping and romantic prose, re-creating the history of those who sacrificed all to care for the people they loved.

My Thoughts

‘Books don’t have owners; they’re free agents we just happen to hold for a brief moment’.

Overall this is an interesting addition to the range of WWII stories available at the moment. To learn more about one particular place during the war, namely the City of Saint-Malo in France (fascinating to Google and learn more about this locale) and told through the eyes of the city librarian, makes for worthwhile reading. 

‘They look just like plain yellowed paper with fading ink and printed letters of little import, but they are much more than that. Herein lies the soul of those who wrote them and the heart of everyone who has poured over their pages. Look at this card: almost two hundred people have read this book in roughly one hundred years. Most of those people are dead now, but last week a twelve-year-old-girl read the book. It keeps living and fulfilling its mission’

If you are a bibliophile then reading this will resonate on many levels. Jocelyn’s dedication to preserve the books and their history/stories is admirable. Once again, you will find yourself running to learn more factual detail of the fate of the library and that, to me, is a sign of a great historical novel.

“We were a small handful of intellectuals armed only with books, which did little against bullets.’

The library and its preservation is what drives Jocelyn. It is her life. With the German occupation, Jocelyn will find every facet of her life impacted. The format is through letters, which whilst I appreciate the intention, made it a little difficult to follow at times. The author has an important story to tell but it gets a little lost in the range of plots as if unsure which path to follow - historical fiction, romance, action, drama.

‘Teachers, writers, booksellers, and librarians - we’re in their way. Deep down they’re afraid of us. They know we can dismantle their lies in the blink of an eye.’

As to the personal story - the romance aspect - neither of them really rang true for me. From her husband in the early pages, to the liaison with the Nazi solider, it lacked a certain believability and therefore I was not invested in that aspect of the book. All up this is a good story for history lovers, WWII buffs or bibliophiles who wish to learn more in a fictional way of past events. Any story that entertains and educates is worth your time. 

‘We’ll all disappear one day … but this’ - I took in the whole library with a gesture - ‘must go on. Books are our legacy … if the Nazis destroy our books, they really have won the war. We won’t know who we are or what we’re doing here.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.