Customer Reviews

April in Paris

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Corporal Roth, a German soldier, is given marching orders to work in Paris as a translator in a Gestapo interrogation room. During his free time, he comes up with a verbotener plan to dress as a native Frenchman and wander through the streets of Paris. He names himself Antoine, whereupon he soon falls in love with Chantal, a book dealer's daughter and a member of the French Resistance.

At first glance, I grew restless with Corporal Roth because he seemed without the expected dimension of a character trapped in harrowing circumstances. However, it is impossible not be drawn into the story as our protagonist navigates his way through both contradictory worlds. I eventually came to understand that this seeming lack of depth might have been the intent of first-time novelist and scriptwriter Michael Wallner. He is, after all, writing about a shell-shocked young soldier looking for a way to cope with his situation.

Corporal Roth takes an incredible risk to escape reality. His assignment, which involves witnessing the torture of French suspects, is at great odds with his job of fluently speaking their language. As he follows the Seine, he is sleepwalking at the edge of the abyss and facing a great moral dilemma, but he is too numb to look down into its depths. We do not witness him struggle with ethical questions. As soldiers must do, he approaches the horror with only part of himself because he otherwise could not get the job done. It is only later that the character begins to unravel, as his courageous yet foolish retreat into illusion becomes all too real. If the stars align, this book has great potential as a film.

It's war. Our "hero" is German but all he wants to be is "normal".

There is no way I can describe this novel -- nor should I attempt to honestly do so. But as soon as I finished it, I came to Amazon to see what other books were available by this author (sadly...).

This is a book for readers who simply want to read VERY good books.

Buy it. Read it. I want to meet the author who can create such a complicated maze of personalities, meshing horror with innocent love. Amazing. Congratulations, Mr. Wallner.

Write me another one - please.

This short novel has a very interesting premise which drives the narration with page turning interest. Told in the first person we meet Roth, a twenty one year old German soldier who speaks fluent French. He finds himself assigned to Gestapo HQ in 1943 occupied Paris. In part the book offers an interesting view of the divergent attitudes of the occupiers and the insurgent French Resistance. More over it is an infatuation story as Roth is at first infatuated with all things French and then specifically with a French girl he notices while walking the streets of Paris. And of course the young lady is a member of the French Resistance. Roth has taken to putting on civilian cloths and pretending he is French and this alone would get him into major trouble if he were caught by the SS. The novel is amazingly dense in plot and suspense as Wallner's style utilizes short, simple and basic sentences, paragraphs and chapters. Rather a Hemingway approach and style. The story does have a few to may coincidences for my taste and yet it is a fun ride and an above average thriller mainly because of it's well written with a unique premise and plot driven narrative. The book is more than just a "beach read" and I would recommend it as a well worthwhile entertainment. (Mr. Wallner is also a screenwriter and I see a screenplay and movie coming from this material. But I don't feel confident any movie would be believable or provide the book's first person narrator Roth any justice.)

This book is a really fast read, partly because many of its plot twists are expected--you can see them coming pages ahead of actually reading them. The book is filled with close, exacting descriptions of torture; at first, these make for horrifying reading. After a while, however, they feel gratuitous and have virtually no impact, except to make this reader feel like the book has turned into one of those superhero films where some Hollywood megastar survives astoundingly awful beatings, shootings, falls, and... oh, wait. The writer is a screenwriter. That explains it!

The best thing that Mr. Wallner achieves here is his initial portrait of Corporal Roth. Defying expectations that a Third Reich soldier would be a monster, Corporal Roth is just a guy. He likes French culture and doesn't want to be sent to the front, and I found myself worrying about him as he went on his nighttime adventures. I wanted him to play it safe and just get by. He doesn't do so--he has more courage than that.

Unfortunately, the last third or so of the book is the part that reads like a "Diehard" movie, except that it's got a quasi-romance plot along with the violence. Maybe Mr. Wallner wrote the book quickly; if he'd put more thought into it, he might have been able to write a story that didn't have to rely on predictable plot twists and implausible events to wind itself up.

A Wermacht soldier named Roth works as a translator in Paris as the Germans occupy the city in the months leading up to the Allied invasion of World War II. He does his job by day, but by night he transforms himself into a Frenchman and takes to the streets. He rejoices in the freedom he feels whenever he is out of the restrictive uniform, walking among the Parisiennes. Naturally, he understands the enormity of the risk he is taking but cannot seem to help himself. While it's possible that he thrives on the danger, it seems more likely that Roth simply hates his day job. Shedding all vestiges of his rank allows him to pretend he's strolling around without a care in the world.

"The next afternoon, desire and curiosity overcame fear once again. I pulled the checkered suit out of the wardrobe, took a fresh shirt, and picked out a tie...I was Antoine again!"

Roth's wandering takes him to a bookshop where he notices a young Frenchwoman, Chantal, and falls hopelessly under her spell. Even when he discovers she's part of the French Resistance, he can't stop himself from pursuing her. He spends his daytime hours in the Rue des Saussaies, a notorious bastion of harsh interrogation and hideous torture, translating the words of the prisoners. Not a particularly queasy person, still Roth averts his eyes whenever possible as the brutality is meted out to the unfortunate numbers suspected of underground activities. Instead of spurring Roth to discontinue his evening escapades, it seems to intensify his desire to don Antoine's clothes and amble about the city. And his need to seek out Chantal.

The young German soldier watches feverishly for her, haunting her hangouts in hopes of even a glimpse of her. His tenacity pays off, but as their love is the forbidden fruit, it can be nothing but doomed. Their clandestine meetings must, by necessity, be brief. Totally smitten, Roth finds that he cannot get enough of her. She dominates his thoughts constantly, and it starts to show in his attention to details. He turns dreamy, his mind drifting somewhere far from the Rue des Saussaies.

Of course, the distraction does not go unnoticed. His superiors begin to pay closer attention to Roth. Soon, he finds himself in more trouble than he had imagined possible. Then an alarming message: Chantal has disappeared. Gone into hiding, he reassures himself. He consoles himself in the belief that she escaped capture. But for Roth, life without Chantal is the worst form of torture. He will risk everything to find her. Hopefully, he will be on time.

Roth and Chantal's relationship is nearly as sweet as Romeo and Juliet's, and almost as tragic. Set in a time of great fear and uncertainty, APRIL IN PARIS is a stunning love story that Michael Wallner has penned with a poignancy unequaled by most historical fiction writers.

--- Reviewed by Kate Ayers

The book is disappointing, possibly suffering from the translation from German. The characters, particularly the female protogonist, are two dimensional and unbelivable. The ending is not bad, but overall, I have seen this genre done much, much better many times before. At least the book is not too long, so you don't waste too much time on it.

This was an entertaining book with a fast moving story. I started it last night and read it through to completion. It was a fast paced story that was well done. Probably would make an excellent movie or made for TV movie. The cover really indicated something else inside, so I was pleasantly surprised by the story. The book had lots of intrigue, suspense, romance, and improbable events and circumstances coming together very cleverly to produce an enjoyable story of historical fiction. I would have enjoyed reading in the "Restricted Zone, Notes from the Second War", to see how the author pulled the elements together to write this book. It really was a good story. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.

Got this book and was not enthusiastic till I got a few pages into it. Wow. This is a "Fun" book to read. Occupied France is a fascinating subject. Other authors have done it well but there seems to be room for more. Buy this book and share it!

Though not terribly original, this love story was certainly a fast and entertaining read. The end was, unfortunately, predictable, but still managed to evoke my emotions. A short, albeit powerful novel, my only real complaint was that this book was just too short, too narrow in scope. I think that this book could have been nicely integrated into a larger book as a secondary plot. Translated from the German, I thought that the translator did a nice job, but I would pity anyone who reads this book who does not have at least an understanding of conversational French, as little French was translated into English. The characters seemed a little stiff at times, but, really I think this was more because of the focus of the book being so narrow.

kinda boring, love story not so great or passionate. dont waste your time reading this book.