Day: July 18, 2022

The Last Restaurant in Paris is a new historical fiction novel by Lily Graham. While it doesn’t exactly break any new ground, it is a solid story with a unique plot.

If you’ve read any WWII historical fiction, or even have a passing knowledge of history, you know that Nazi-occupied France is still one of the biggest moments in the war. The untold stories are endless.

For the French citizens who were sympathizers to those who fought the occupation – and everywhere in between – the spirit of the French people is impossible to ignore.

In the plot of The Last Restaurant in Paris, the reader gets a little bit of all of these attitudes. They are all present in an enigma of a character in Marianne.

Yes, the plot is a typical dual storyline/present-past weaving of history; that’s common. The beginning does drag a bit. But the groundwork needs to be solid for Marianne’s story to be fully understood.

Once the author gets to that point, it is a completely different novel. The careful reader immerses themselves in Marianne’s Paris. The author excels at these types of character builds.

Through her eyes, it is easier to see why she did what she did (you can get the plot point from the blurb and other reviews). Marianne understood the importance of fighting back but also understood that sometimes hard sacrifices need to be made.

That doesn’t make the choice any easier.

What I also found interesting was how easy it seemed for the people of the neighborhood to believe the worst…and to essentially rewrite history.

It seems apparent that some people would rather believe an easy lie than a harder truth.

I did like how Sabine and Gilbert discovered the history together from completely different backgrounds/points of view. It gave a holistic feel to Marianne’s story.

And I dare you not to tear up when the truth of Marianne’s story reveals itself. The independent spirit – and sacrifice necessary to maintain it – is not to be forgotten.

The Last Restaurant in Paris is another great historical fiction novel by Lily Graham (see also: The German Girl. I continue to look forward to more!

Author Bio

Lily Graham is the author of the bestselling, The Child of Auschwitz, The Paris Secret and The Island Villa, among others. Her books have been translated into numerous languages, including French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Turkish.

She grew up in South Africa, and was a journalist for a decade before giving it up to write fiction full time. Her first three novels were lighter, women’s fiction, but when she wrote The Island Villa, a story about a secret Jewish community living on the tiny island of Formentera during the Spanish Inquisition, she switched to historical fiction and hasn’t quite looked back since.

She lives now in the Suffolk coast with her husband and English bulldog, Fudge. Her latest book, The Flight of Swallows, set in Denmark and Sweden, will be out in January 2021.