Review: Love Transcends in The Last Hours in Paris
‘To love or have loved, that is enough. Ask nothing further. There is no other pearl to be found in the dark folds of life.’
Victor HugoAround 200,000 children were born between 1941 and 1945 as a result of liaisons between French women and occupying German troops.
This phenomenon is the starting point for Ruth Druart’s second novel – The Last Hours In Paris, set during the Nazi occupation of France. German translator Sebastian falls in love with Élise, a young Parisian woman who has been trying to help Jewish orphans escape deportation. Here Druart asks questions not often considered in WW2 literature. How far were the occupying Germans victims themselves? What were their attitudes towards the locals? And what was the fate of the women who ‘liaised’ with them?
Guillermo del Toro – New Book Looks Inside the Mind of a Legendary Director
Artwork by James Jean, created for the launch of The Shape of Water Dark fairy tales, gothic horror, amphibious love stories and Spanish Civil War history – surely no other director has spanned quite so many genres while achieving this level of critical success. A fan since Pan’s Labyrinth, I was thrilled to read a new, in-depth look at the work of visionary auteur Guillermo del Toro.
Empire magazine film critic Ian Nathan explores Del Toro’s early years in Mexico and his beginnings in special effects, before looking at each of his films in detail. From his debut vampire fable Cronos and the chilling Devil’s Backbone, to the dark allegory of Pan’s Labyrinth, gothic romance of Crimson Peak, Oscars smash The Shape of Water and everything in between.
Review: Little Scratch by Rebecca Watson
Published earlier this month, Little Scratch by Rebecca Watson has been universally praised. In this debut novel we follow a day in the life of a young woman who works in a mundane office job. We’re in her head from the moment she wakes up, to the moment she drops off to sleep.
She’s extremely self-conscious, suffering ever-present anxiety and impulses to self-harm, troubled by a recent trauma. The memories often break through, but of course she hasn’t the time (or possibly the inclination) to fully process the experience. She is assaulted by constant distractions – email, WhatsApp, Twitter and colleagues making small talk, but those intrusive, traumatic thoughts are always there under the surface.
Review: While Paris Slept by Ruth Druart
A young woman’s future is torn away in a heartbeat. Herded on to a train bound for Auschwitz, in an act of desperation she entrusts her most precious possession to a stranger. All she has left now is hope.
Author Ruth Druart moved to Paris in 1993. While walking around the city when she first moved there, she was moved by the plaques and monuments to those killed during World War II. Outside a school in Le Marais, she noticed a simple plaque telling of the 260 pupils who were detained by the Nazis during the war. This inspired her to learn more about the German occupation of France.