Book Review: The Librarian of Saint-Malo

BOOK BY: Mario Escobar

The Librarian of Saint-Malo is a beautiful story of survival during the Nazi Occupation of France.

Jocelyn is the town’s librarian, who struggles in the absence of her husband while he is fighting for France. The story opens in 1938 on the day of their wedding. In the short time they have together, hardship and illness strikes. But it is during the years of the war, that Jocelyn is most challenged to mature, learn how to fight for her freedom, and how to survive the evils of humanity.

She hasn’t had an easy life, and it seems many of her dear ones are ripped from her, leaving her alone with the books in the library of Saint Malo, France. Jocelyn is young and at times naïve. She takes risks that have devastating effects on her friends, further isolating her from human contact.

As expected, a world war two story wouldn’t be complete without a ruthless Nazi officer. He plagues Jocelyn the entire novel. Then, there is the kind Nazi officer who rescues her more than once. What I appreciated about the secondary characters in this story is that each one is varied. There are German officers who struggle with the treatment of fellow man, young children who get swept up in the ideology, civilians who turn on their fellow countrymen while others defend the innocent. There are French Jews who are treated with disgust from German and French people, some becoming prisoners of war, part of the purge, or political prisoners.

The entire novel is told from a series of letters Jocelyn pens to a famous (fictitious) French author about her town and her experiences in trying to preserve France’s literary treasures. Though they are letters, the reader is drawn into Jocelyn’s world and only periodically is reminded of this fact.

I quite enjoyed this novel.

I received an ecopy from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.

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