The Paris Architect

Author Charles Belfoure is a real live architect so his perspective on German-occupied Paris during the early 1940's reflects his passion for the buildings and the structure of the city itself. Lucien, a struggling architect who sat out France's defense at the Maginot Line, which the Germans adroitly circumvented, does not consider himself to be a brave man or a fool. And only one or the other would choose to have anything to do with Jews at this point in time when the Gestapo are relentlessly hunting them down and shooting anyone who even lives in the same building as a Jew. When Manet, an aristocrat turned industrialist, comes to Lucien asking him to devise a hiding place that can't be found by the Gestapo, Lucien turns him down flat.  Manet, however, promises not only a sizable sum of money, but the opportunity to build his next big factory, which at this time in the war, would be providing armaments for the Germans. Lucien is a modernist, a fan of Gropius and the Bauhaus movement, hence much reviled in a city that reveres classic architecture. He agrees more out of a desire to get his big break and do something that will demonstrate his talent, although the money does allow him to buy scarce food on the black market. Swearing each time that it will be his last, Lucien continues to build cleverly disguised hiding places, outwitting the Gestapo, and so becoming their target. With his marriage already on the rocks, Lucien's wife leaves him, accusing him of being a collaborator--an architect who has sold his soul to the devil. His denial and revelation that he has been helping hide Jews only adds to her scorn. Even Lucien's beautiful mistress, Adele, has abandoned him in favor of a powerful member of the Gestapo who can get scarce fabrics to supply her fashion design business. Because of Lucien's activities, a Catholic priest who has been aiding Jewish children, brings a boy to him, ostensibly for a short time, but the priest is captured and disappears forever into Gestapo headquarters.  Lucien finds he likes being a surrogate father for Pierre. Bette, Adele's second in command, it turns out, is also hiding Jewish children, and when Lucien designs a hiding place in her apartment that saves their lives, she falls fully in love with him. As the noose draws tighter, Lucien's unlikely friendship with a German engineer buys him the resources to escape across the Swiss border with Bette and the 3 children. I thought the writing at times was a bit clunky, and the ending way too tidy, although goodness knows there was plenty of torture and violence prior to this. The book is most interesting for its portrayal of neighbor turning against neighbor when fear is expertly manipulated. There is a map in the front material so you can follow the action through the streets of Paris.