The Paris Showroom

By: Juliet Blackwell

Narrated by: Xe Sands, Carlotta Brentan, Barbara Rosenblat

In Nazi-occupied Paris, a talented artisan must fight for her life by designing for her enemies. From New York Times bestselling author Juliet Blackwell comes an extraordinary story about holding on to hope when all seems lost.

Capucine Benoit works alongside her father to produce fans of rare feathers, beads, and intricate pleating for the haute couture fashion houses. But after the Germans invade Paris in June 1940, Capucine and her father must focus on mere survival—until they are betrayed to the secret police and arrested for his political beliefs. When Capucine saves herself from deportation to Auschwitz by highlighting her connections to Parisian design houses, she is sent to a little-known prison camp located in the heart of Paris, within the Lévitan department store.

There, hundreds of prisoners work to sort through, repair, and put on display the massive quantities of art, furniture, and household goods looted from Jewish homes and businesses. Forced to wait on German officials and their wives and mistresses, Capucine struggles to hold her tongue in order to survive, remembering happier days spent in the art salons, ateliers, and jazz clubs of Montmartre in the 1920s.

Capucine’s estranged daughter, Mathilde, remains in the care of her conservative paternal grandparents, who are prospering under the Nazi occupation. But after her mother is arrested and then a childhood friend goes missing, the usually obedient Mathilde finds herself drawn into the shadowy world of Paris’s Résistance fighters. As her mind opens to new ways of looking at the world, Mathilde also begins to see her unconventional mother in a different light.

When an old acquaintance arrives to go “shopping” at the Lévitan department store on the arm of a Nazi officer and secretly offers to help Capucine get in touch with Mathilde, this seeming act of kindness could have dangerous consequences.

Story okay; Narration Irritating

I fell for the reviews and discovered the story is okay, but not as good as I expected. Very disappointed in the narration for the character Capucine. Halting, shaky, over dramatic through the whole story. It was very, very distracting and annoying. Almost didn't make it to the end of the story it was so bad!

History Should Never be Forgotten

History should be remembered so the atrocities committed will never be repeated and the strength of those who endured will be honored. This book was difficult to listen to and yet so full of the spirit of the survivors of WWII. I enjoyed the history of Paris and was as shocked as always by the inhumanity of Hitlers followers. This was a very riveting book and addressed so many different facets of the war and the effects they had on people of such different backgrounds and cultures. I am so glad I chose to listen!

Stunning

I absolutely loved this book. The history of the work camps, the knowledge & explanation of Jewish holidays and rituals, the relationship between mother and daughter, the lost loves that fill us with regret and sadness..I loved the whole story. Mathilde is a really interesting study of the upper classes who knew very little of the hunger & deprivation that was happening in the cities. Capucine is a really interesting character as a whole. I've read a lot of WWII historical fiction & this has been one of my favorites.

Ms. Blackwell never disappoints

The story was moving and told the story of Paris during WWII in a different way, by uniquely explaining examples, of the different levels of collaboration by the Parisians trying to survive the war.
But at the same time, it also had examples of Resistance and demonstrated those were always inherently dangerous if not fatal.
I did enjoy the story of Mathilda & Capucine and the difference of a mother/daughter separated by love, family, war and the Nazis.
It must be very difficult to narrate a book with so many different characters, language, ages and accents…so well done.
Thanks to everyone who made this production possible.

Captivating!

I loved the different characters in the performance. This book makes me want to read more historical novels.