The Postmistress of Paris

Starred review from August 16, 2021
Clayton (The Last Train to London) expertly renders the story of a courageous American woman’s role in the French Resistance during WWII. In 1938, Naneé Gold lives in the company of Parisian writers and artists. When the Germans invade France, Naneé flees Paris with T, the wife of her “French brother,” Danny Bénédite, whom she had lived with while studying at the Sorbonne, and the Bénédites’ young son, Peterkin. Determined to help thwart the Nazi occupation, Naneé begins working with Varian Fry, who provides aid to refugees while secretly helping artists escape, and she later embarks on a mission to free photographer and artist Edouard Moss from an internment camp. As the war rages on, Naneé takes up residence at a villa in Marseilles with Danny, T, and Peterkin following Danny’s French military service. Naneé helps Edouard search for his daughter Luki, whom he sent to Paris before his internment. As Naneé and Edouard become lovers, the intensity of their romance is heightened by the ever-present dangers from the Germans. Clayton’s lyrical, thought-provoking prose breathes life into her characters. This sterling portrait of a complex woman stands head and shoulders above most contemporary WWII fiction. Agent: Marly Rusoff, Marly Rusoff & Assoc.

October 1, 2021
Love and peril in Vichy, France. Mary Jayne Gold, an American heiress who worked to rescue artists and intellectuals from Nazi-occupied France, has inspired Clayton's spirited reimagining of those turbulent years, centered on the intrepid Nan�e Gold--she can fly a plane!--and the handsome photojournalist Edouard Moss, a widower with an impossibly adorable young daughter. While Nan�e and Edouard are fictional, Clayton embeds them in a world of real people: Marc Chagall, incredulous that his own government would turn against him; Pablo Picasso, who refused to leave Paris; Leonora Carrington, who comes to a gathering at Nan�e's Paris apartment; Lion Feuchtwanger, Hans Bellmer, and Max Ernst, among many others imprisoned at the Camp des Milles internment camp; and Andr� Breton and his wife, Jacqueline, who hold a salon in the Villa Air-Bel, a safe house secured and paid for by Nan�e, where fellow surrealists distract themselves in talk, dancing, and games. Although friends urge Nan�e to go home, she has no interest in returning to a vacuous life as a socialite; instead, she insists, she "wanted to do something to help, the same as any decent person in this newly terrible world surely must." Her chance comes in 1940, with the arrival of Varian Fry, sent by the American Emergency Rescue Committee to facilitate the escape of some 200 painters, composers, and writers in danger of Nazi persecution. Fry, realizing the benefit of Nane�'s willingness and wealth, makes her a courier--a postmistress--delivering messages throughout Paris. The plot thickens when Nan�e becomes infatuated with Moss, who has been sent to Camp des Milles. Dressed in a couture suit, wearing diamonds and a dab of Chanel No. 5, Nane� devises her own mission to get him out. As their love affair intensifies, so do their desperate efforts to find Moss' daughter and, somehow, survive the ominous world of war. Sympathetic characters propel a tense narrative.

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October 15, 2021
In 1938, Nan�e Fry flies into Paris in her Vega Gull airplane with her beloved dog by her side. She lands on the tarmac, changes into a black dress, and attends a glamorous art show, where she meets photographer Edouard Moss and his young daughter, Luki. A few months later, France is in the midst of WWII and Nanee must decide whether to return to America or stay and help her friends. She soon becomes involved with an underground group helping others escape the Nazis, and learns Edouard has been in a prison camp separated from his daughter for months. Nanee is determined to help him escape and reunite with Luki no matter the sacrifice. Based on the true story of American heiress Mary Jayne Gold, who used her connections and fortune to help refugees during WWII, this gripping historical love story from Clayton (The Last Train to London, 2019) brings readers into the courageous lives of those struggling just to stay alive and those risking everything to help.

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Starred review from November 1, 2021

Clayton's (The Last Train to London) compelling World War II novel is based on the real lives of American women in the French Resistance. Nane� Gold is an American heiress living among artists and intellectuals in Paris when the German army invades France. Instead of returning to the States (whose rules and expectations Nane� never seemed to live up to) she stays in France, determined to help the Resistance any way she can. Nane� moves to Marseille, where she helps Varian Fry smuggle artists out of France, delivers messages to those in hiding, and provides lodging and a legitimate cover to friends and other resisters. After going to great lengths to free photographer �douard Moss from a concentration camp, Nane� begins to search for his young daughter Luki, and �douard must decide whether to flee or stay and fight. VERDICT A true gem in an oversaturated category, and a testament to the power of good. Recommended for fans of Ariel Lawhon's Code Name H�l�ne or Martha Hall Kelly's Lilac Girls.--Portia Kapraun, Delphi P.L., IN

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