This sounds like an action packed novel set in World War II that will take your breath away. You can read more about the novel and buy the e-book from Amazon.
I knew Leroy did extensive research for this novel so I asked him to share with us how this research effected him emotionally. Here is what he had to say:
The research behind The Siren of Paris had a deep impact upon me emotionally. After reading a few books on World War II, I came to the conclusion that I really did not know much about this war, which I had heard about all my life. I knew about the war on a large-scale political and military level, but I did now know what it was like on the ground, as a civilian. It was an odd experience, because I have a college education, and I am well versed in history. Plus, on a personal level, I had known many World War II veterans as well as civilians who experienced the war or were victims of the Holocaust. Now I realize that what they shared was only a fraction of what they had experienced.
Once I got past the clichés and well known aspects of the war, and down to personal stories, I was even more shocked. The main image I’d had of the French Resistance was blowing up trains and smuggling things, and I had the impression that it was a well organized underground movement. However, this was not accurate. In the early days of the resistance, it was nothing more than everyday people, who were taking extraordinary risks to pass out papers, or smuggle downed airmen. Many of these people did not survive the war. None of them were trained by a secret British Intelligence group or working spies. They were students, teachers, ministers, housewives, and retired people. Yes, people in retirement, engaging in smuggling downed airmen out of Paris and running back and forth to the border. Not some handsome, slick and sexy 23-year old-man from Hollywood, but two women in their mid-60’s with three dogs and a black Renault taking hand-offs from a Catholic priest in the north. At least until they were caught. The American woman was traded back to America as a spy, the Catholic priest went to Mauthausen Concentration Camp where he died, and the British woman was shot.
Eventually, I became rather haunted by these stories and felt compelled to write a novel that would really give someone a sense of what it would be like to be trapped in Europe , as a civilian, during the war. I did not want to write about some cocky spy or a hero who always escapes at the last minute. I worked to avoid stereotypes of both the resistance and of the Germans. Instead, I wanted to write a story that leaned towards the reality of the war, rather than the fictionalized ideas we might have about it. Some have questioned the betrayal story in this book, finding it rather unlikely; however I tamed it down quite a bit. I had read detailed stories of betrayal so horrible I did not believe I should repeat them.
Several of the characters in the book, such as the Belgian boy and girl with the two dogs, are real people. They are without names, because even though many people remembered them boarding the Lancastria, no one ever knew their names. Jean is a real historical character, a friend of Jacques Lusseyran, and he did actually die in a rail car going to Buchenwald. In fact, I am rather careful not to give detailed descriptions of deaths, but instead to give them a context and meaning -- through my main character, Marc -- out of respect for these people’s final moments.
I attempted, as an author, to guide the reader through an experience of World War II that’s as realistic as possible, from the point of view of Marc Tolbert, who is a very unlikely person to get swept up in a war.
On a political and military level, the winners of World War II were the allies, and the losers were Italy, Germany and Japan. However, when you look at this war on a very personal level, the winners of the war were the survivors, and the losers were over 69 million solders and civilians, including women, children, and older people, who died. I wanted readers to experience the fear, uncertainly, and doubt that the war brought into the lives of my characters. I also wanted them to feel the psychological and emotional scars that were left upon the survivors.
Ultimately, I wanted readers to see the ghosts of this war, because my experience with survivors is that they do feel and know those ghosts quite well. They were very often loved ones, family members or friends who live, to this very day, in their mind’s eye just as they last saw them before they died.
Wow. I have not read this book myself yet, but this post makes me want to download the novel from Amazon now. Those that enjoy reading the historical novels set in World War II will not want to miss this story. You can read more about this book and David Leroy at The Siren of Paris.
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