A Bookshop in Berlin, Francoise Frenkel
A Bookshop in Berlin, Francoise Frenkel
4 Rating(s)
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
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A Bookshop in Berlin
The Rediscovered Memoir of One Woman's Harrowing Escape from the Nazis

Author: Françoise Frenkel

Narrator: Jilly Bond

Unabridged: 6 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/03/2019


Synopsis

A PEOPLE BOOK OF THE WEEK
WINNER OF THE JQ–WINGATE LITERARY PRIZE

“A haunting tribute to survivors and those lost forever—and a reminder, in our own troubled era, never to forget.” —People

An “exceptional” (The Wall Street Journal) and “poignant” (The New York Times) book in the tradition of rediscovered works like Suite Française and The Nazi Officer’s Wife, the powerful memoir of a fearless Jewish bookseller on a harrowing fight for survival across Nazi-occupied Europe.

In 1921, Françoise Frenkel—a Jewish woman from Poland—fulfills a dream. She opens La Maison du Livre, Berlin’s first French bookshop, attracting artists and diplomats, celebrities and poets. The shop becomes a haven for intellectual exchange as Nazi ideology begins to poison the culturally rich city. In 1935, the scene continues to darken. First come the new bureaucratic hurdles, followed by frequent police visits and book confiscations.

Françoise’s dream finally shatters on Kristallnacht in November 1938, as hundreds of Jewish shops and businesses are destroyed. La Maison du Livre is miraculously spared, but fear of persecution eventually forces Françoise on a desperate, lonely flight to Paris. When the city is bombed, she seeks refuge across southern France, witnessing countless horrors: children torn from their parents, mothers throwing themselves under buses. Secreted away from one safe house to the next, Françoise survives at the heroic hands of strangers risking their lives to protect her.

Published quietly in 1945, then rediscovered nearly sixty years later in an attic, A Bookshop in Berlin is a remarkable story of survival and resilience, of human cruelty and human spirit. In the tradition of Suite Française and The Nazi Officer’s Wife, this book is the tale of a fearless woman whose lust for life and literature refuses to leave her, even in her darkest hours.

About Françoise Frenkel

Françoise Frenkel was born in Poland in 1889. Fulfilling a lifelong dream, she opened the first French-language bookshop in Berlin with her husband. In the summer of 1939, with war looming, Frenkel fled to Paris. She sought refuge across occupied France for the next several years until finally escaping across the border to Switzerland, where she wrote a memoir documenting her refugee experience. Her memoir, originally published in 1945 as Rien où poser sa tête (No Place to Lay One’s Head), was rediscovered in an attic in southern France in 2010 and republished in the original French as well as in a dozen other languages. This is its first publication in the United States. Frenkel died in Nice in 1975.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader on December 03, 2019

This autobiography/memoir was recently rediscovered. It is a treasure and so incredibly powerful. In the 1920s, Francoise Frenkel is a Jewish woman born in Poland and now living in Berlin. She opens a French bookshop, Berlin’s first of its kind. It’s not just any bookshop, though. Intellectuals meet......more

Goodreads review by JimZ on November 13, 2020

I am giving this book 4 stars — 3 stars for the writing and one additional star for how this book saw the light of day — pretty amazing and interesting. This memoir is about a Jewish woman born in Poland who goes to Berlin with her husband and sets up a French bookshop (Maison du Livre français) soon......more

Goodreads review by Maria on January 20, 2018

4.5/ Ya lo he dicho en más de una ocasión, me parece una falta de respeto hacia el autor, puntuar un libro como este basándome sólo en si me llega a conmover o no con sus palabras. Sin embargo, en este caso, no puedo dejar de hacerlo; no sólo por cómo la autora nos muestra una Francia ocupada sino p......more

Goodreads review by Annie♡ on January 23, 2018

Siempre que leo sobre la Segunda Guerra Mundial me indigno ante tanta crueldad. No comprendo (y nunca comprenderé) cómo existen seres sin ningún tipo de compasión. En este libro, a pesar de ser un testimonio de la autora y de haber tenido que pasar tanto sufrimiento, no veo ningún tipo de lamento, s......more

Goodreads review by Paul E on March 10, 2020

This is an amazing story. It is very well written and reads very smoothly for a true diary account. It is a slightly different perspective from the Nazi holocaust, but not any less poignant. Note: I was given a complimentary hard copy by the publisher for an honest review.......more


Quotes

"Jilly Bond narrates this memoir, written by a Polish–Jewish woman and originally published in 1945. An ardent booklover, Frenkel opened the first French bookshop in Berlin in 1921. When the Nazis rose to power, she fled to France, only to find herself subjected to the restrictions against Jews imposed under the Vichy regime. Bond seamlessly shifts between English and French words, and expertly portrays both sympathetic and oppressive individuals. With subtle vocal shifts, Bond fully inhabits Frenkel's thoughts and emotions as she struggles to save her own life in a fraught political climate. Listeners will sense Frenkel's increasing fear through Bond's expressive narration and varied pacing. A gripping audio presentation of events that should never happen again."