A powerful, well-written novel in two time-frames. Fay is a young violinist who goes to Paris in 1961. There she uncovers unexpected information about her early childhood. It's given as a kind of flashback to her mother Kitty's younger years, when she went to study music in Paris, and met her husband.

The 'past' part of the story is set in the early 1940s, so the occupation of Paris is an ongoing theme. The author is a historian, and the setting as well as some authentic details make this era come alive in a way that I had not expected.

While Fay does not expect what she learns, there are sufficient hints that I was generally one step ahead of her (at least) and revelations, when they occurred, were not surprises to me. But I don't think it much mattered. I found it a powerful, sometimes moving book that opened my eyes to some of the horrors of the war from a perspective which I had not previously been aware of.

Yet overall it's an encouraging read, and the ending - if a tad predictable - is entirely satisfactory.

Full review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2019/09/a-week-in-paris-by-rachel-hore.html ( )

I really enjoyed this book but can’t help feeling the title did it no favours. ‘A Week in Paris’ by Rachel Hore is a story of hidden secrets, wartime Paris, resistance, collaboration, bravery and music. Because of the title I was expecting something more cosy and romantic; although there is a romantic strand to the story, this book is worth reading for so much more.
The week in Paris in question happens in 1956 when teenager Fay goes on a school trip to Paris. Two significant things happen to her there. She meets a fanciable boy, Adam, and has a strange fainting episode triggered by the ringing of the bells at Notre Dame. Back home, she questions her mother Kitty who denies that Fay has ever been to Paris. But Fay cannot shake off the feelings of familiarity.
In 1961 Fay, now a professional violinist, has the chance to go to Paris for a series of performances. However her mother, always emotionally vulnerable, has taken an accidental overdose and is in St Edda’s Hospital. Before she leaves for Paris, Fay visits her mother who tells her to look at the bottom of a locked trunk at home. In it, Fay finds a small canvas rucksack. Attached to it is a label. On one side is written ‘Fay Knox, Southampton’, on the reverse, ‘Convent Ste-Cécile, Paris.’
‘She sat staring at the label for some time, while the faintest glimmer of a memory rose in her mind. Sunshine falling on flagstones, the blue robes of a statuette, and… but no, it was gone. It was as though a door had opened, just a chink, in her mind, before it shut again.’
The story is told in two strands, World War Two and afterwards, from the viewpoints of Kitty and Fay. Gradually the mysteries are unveiled. Fay has the unsettling feeling that her mother is keeping secrets, while Kitty knows she must some day explain everything to her daughter. For a long time, the reader keeps guessing.
In Paris, Fay sets off to find the convent mentioned on the label. There she slowly unravels the truth. How, despite denying to Fay that she has ever been to France, Kitty went to Paris in 1937 to study piano at the Conservatoire. What follows is an unveiling of a secret life during the Second World War, a time when Fay was a toddler, a time her mother told her they lived in a pretty cottage in Richmond. The real story of Kitty’s pre-war life in Paris, her meeting and love affair with Fay’s father Eugene, and what happened next, is fascinating. Again, Fay experiences feelings of déjà vu but this time she is old enough to seek the answers. She never imagined the truth she discovers.
I found myself picking up the book at every opportunity, just to read another couple of pages. It is a fascinating study of wartime secrets being kept from the next generation, not in an attempt to deny but as a way of pushing away the pain, grief and shame of what happened in an occupied city.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/ ( )

A little while ago a friend of mine encouraged me to read Rachel Hore's previous book, 'The Silent Tide'. I was a bit reluctant, foolishly imagining that it might be aimed predominantly at a female audience and I might find it too romantic for my taste. I couldn't have been more wrong - I found it a charming and riveting read, and I was very glad to have had it flagged up to me, as I would certainly otherwise have overlooked it.

I was, therefore, keen to read this, her latest offering, and I wasn't disappointed. Ms Hore seems to have a great facility for managing parallel stories. This time the narrative revolves around Fay Knox who, in 1961, visits Paris as a violinist with an orchestra that is due to perform three concerts. Shortly before she is due to travel her mother, Kitty, is taken ill and is admitted to hospital. When she learns that Fay will be going to Paris Kitty asks her to look in a trunk in her home, and to contact someone called 'Meremarry'. Enthralled by being in Paris, Fay does as her mother asks, and gradually uncovers aspects of her own past that she had been unaware of, apart from the odd, discomforting instance of déjà vu.

Meanwhile, a separate narrative unfolds, relating Kitty's own experiences shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War when she had been studying music at the Conservatoire as a promising pianist. During this time she stayed in a nunnery where the Abbess was Mère Marie. Shortly after arriving she meets Eugene Knox, an American doctor working at the American hospital in Paris, and they are soon engaged and then married. Their delight is curtailed, however, by events beyond their control as Hitler's Germany annexes the Sudetenland and then invades Poland. On 3rd September 1939, as Britain declares war on Germany following the invasion of Poland, Kitty's daughter Fay is born.

The dual narratives work very well and the plot grips the attention throughout, complemented by interesting insights into the historical context of the story. I certainly enjoyed reading this. ( )