Questers -- March 8, 2023

The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles follows two different timelines with the main character, Odile, linking 1939 Paris with 1983 Montana. As the Nazis enter and occupy France, Odile and her friends who work at the American Library in Paris must protect the books in the library and each other. The reader meets an eclectic group of employees, volunteers, and subscribers to the library who are all trying to survive their new normal where it’s unclear who can be trusted. Odile’s father and fiancé are both French police officers who once proudly served and protected their citizens but are now thrust into the role the German occupiers force upon them, hunting down their Jewish neighbors and sending them to unthinkable fates. While Odile is determined to keep the library open throughout the war effort, the choices she and her coworkers must make come with grave consequences. Choices that once seemed obvious, moral, and ethical, are now a hazy shade of gray when faced with survival in a war torn country.

We meet Odile again approximately forty-five years later when her lonely teenage neighbor, Lily, befriends her and begins uncovering the layers of hurt and betrayal Odile has kept secret for decades. When Lily’s mother dies, she turns to Odile for comfort, but they soon discover they share a love of the French language and forge a deep friendship. Odile tries to guide Lily away from mistakes she made in her own teen years, mistakes that have had consequences lasting decades.

The novel contains romance, friendship, and heroism, but the Questers concluded it fell short developing those themes into a story that makes the reader really care about the characters. The characters themselves just were not interesting or exciting. However, the group did think the ethical questions that the novel evoked were interesting and could make comparisons between the choices the characters had to make and the choices we might have to make in our current times if faced with war. The Questers gave the book 2.5 out of 5 stars.