To celebrate Arts & Humanities Month, our Collection Services Librarian has written a series of book reviews of titles that take place in the art world. This is the second in the series.
The Paris Deception: A Novel by Bryn Turnbull (May 2023)
Bryn Turnbull’s latest novel, The Paris Deception interweaves fiction and nonfiction in a beautiful World War II story about a group of most fiery and cunning rebels. Turnbull follows Sophie Dix, her sister-in-law and once-friend, Fabienne, and their band of revolutionary loved ones as they rescue art plundered by the ERR (Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce), a Nazi Party organization that stole art from Jewish families.
German-born art restorer, Sophie Dix and her brother, Dietrich, escape the accelerating Nazi regime and settle in Paris. After Dietrich is killed and the Regime conquers Paris, Sophie clambers to keep afloat. Filled with grief, Sophie accepts a position at the Jeu de Paume, a museum for modern art. She works alongside Rose, loosely based off the heroic real-life “art spy”, Rose Valland. When the Nazis take over the Jeu de Paume and use it as a storage space for stolen artworks, Sophie knows she needs to act. The art saving scheme of a lifetime begins when Sophie appears at Bohemian artist Fabienne’s door with a painting she sneaked out of the museum…
Turnbull’s deep knowledge of art history enriches the experience. She teaches the reader about targeted “Degenerate” artists, such as expressionist painter, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Turnbull incorporates the story of his incredible but onerous life that ended in suicide (though questioned to this day) after persecution by the Nazis into Sophie and Fabienne’s crusades. The reader gains an understanding of depths the Nazi Party sank to dismantle culture in the name of creating a “1,000-year Reich”.
Place a hold on The Paris Deception: https://bit.ly/3tecXgS
