At a glance
‘All the Ways We Said Goodbye: A Novel of the Paris Ritz’
close in on Paris, Aurélie decides to take the talisman and join her father at the family estate.
Outside the hotel, she finds a city she hardly recognizes: “The few men on the streets were old or lame; the city had become a city of women, women with their heads down, hurrying along as if life were no longer something to be celebrated, but to be got through as quickly as possible,” she notes. “Cafes were shuttered, shops closed for want of proprietor and customers. It was as though Paris had the life drained out of it, a thin, pale version of itself.” Soon Aurélie realizes she has unwittingly put herself, her family and the talisman in danger, and she must decide whether to trust an unlikely ally.
The third and central story of the book belongs to Daisy, Aurélie’s daughter, who grows up at the Ritz with her grandmother. In 1942, as the Nazis occupy Paris, Daisy must choose between
By Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig and Karen White. William Morrow. 448 pages. $27.99.
If you go
Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig and Karen White will discuss “All the Ways We Said Goodbye” at 6 p.m. Thursday at Novel, 387 Perkins Extd. safety for herself and her children — provided by her husband’s eagerness to prosper by serving the Third Reich — and her duty to her country. As she walks to the Ritz, the timeless beauty of the city overwhelms her moral dilemma: “It was early May and Paris was blossoming in its heedless, abundant way, all buds and sunshine and sidewalks glossy from some recent shower, and when you drank in the air from the Tuileries it tasted of spring, as it did year after year, Germans or no Germans. What was the point in railing against fate? Against anything? It made no difference, except to get you in trouble.”
Team W has woven an intricate and surprising tale of loyalty when everything seems lost, bravery in the face of brutality, and love that always finds a way — all of it playing out against a backdrop of turbulent history and the ever-stalwart presence of the Paris Ritz.
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