The Librarian of St Malo by Mario Escobar

I had high hopes for this one, but I'm sorry to say that it fell short of my expectations.

The story is set in France during the Second World War, and describes the period when the Germans invaded France and stationed hundreds of soldiers in St Malo. The Nazis had decreed that any books found in France that were deemed to be subversive were to be gathered in and destroyed and the local librarian, Jocelyn, sets about saving as many as she can. The author is Spanish, so the book has been translated into American English and, to me, that didn't sit very well as the language of French and German people.

The outline of the story sounds good, but I found the characters one dimensional and some parts of the plot were not very credible. Mario Escobar has a masters degree in modern history, so he has a good working knowledge of the facts relating to the Second World War, but I found myself constantly questioning whether some of the events would ever have happened. Jocelyn makes friends with one of the German Officers and when her friend, the owner of a bookshop, is arrested for plotting against the Germans, she asks the German to try and get him released from Dachau, then few chapters later the bookseller is returned to St Malo! Later Jocelyn asks the same German officer if he will steal a number of blank identity documents as she needs to help a Jewish family to escape, so he just goes ahead and gives her the papers! You see what I mean? I think I finally gave up when Jocelyn goes to the home of a Count who lives in a big house near the town and within two sentences she is telling him she is working with the Resistance and she would like him to help her. His response is to tell her that he is hiding some British Airmen and she can help him to send them back to England.

I won't be looking out for any more books by this author I'm afraid.

Comments

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