The War Begins in Paris

Author(s)/Editor(s): Wheeler, Theodore - -

Binding: HARD COVER BOOKS
YearMonthDay of Publication: 20231114
Standardized Book Category: Historical - 20th Century - World War II & Holocaust
Language: English
Page Count: 00352

Publisher Marketing:

NATIONAL BESTSELLER 2024 Omaha Reads Book Pick

From the author of Kings of Broken Things and In Our Other Lives comes a "powerful, immersive" literary noir about two female World War II correspondents whose fates intertwine in Europe (Caitlin Horrocks).

Paris, 1938. Two women meet: Mielle, a shy pacifist and shunned Mennonite who struggles to fit in with the elite cohort of foreign correspondents stationed around the city; the other, Jane, a brash, legendary American journalist, who is soon to become a fascist propagandist. When World War II makes landfall in the City of Lights, Mielle falls under Jane's spell, growing ever more intoxicated by her glamour, self-possession, and reckless confidence. But as this recklessness devolves into militarism and an utter lack of humanity, Mielle is seized by a series of visions that show her an inescapable truth: Jane Anderson must die, and Mielle must be the one to kill her.

Structured as a series of dispatches filed from around Europe and based on the misadventures of a real journalist-turned-Nazi mouthpiece, The War Begins in Paris is a cat-and-mouse suspense that examines the relentlessness of propaganda, the allure of power, and how far one woman will go for the sake of her morality.