The Paris Architect

Charles Belfoure has written a compelling novel about the Holocaust from a perspective I have not explored before.  Seeing the war through the eyes of French architect, Lucien Bernard the reader sees and feels the conflict of conscience and everyday life of a man living in occupied France.

Belfoure has created in this novel a story that gives the reader many issues to wonder how they would react in.  As you read the book you are presented with a number of quandaries to consider; how would you react to the Germans coming and occupying your country?  How would you react to the Germans coming in and killing people your friends, either because they themselves were Jewish or because they had hidden someone Jewish?  Would you hide and protect someone at personal risk to yourself?

In The Paris Architect, the main character, Lucien Bernard learns many new things about himself as he gets involved in designing both armament factories for the Germans and hiding places for the Jewish resistance. Bernard is a man who is struggling, until the war, with low self esteem, an unhappy marriage and is trying to build his career as a prominent architect.  When he is approached by a wealthy industrialist to design a hiding place to help a Jewish friend, Bernard refuses at first, falling back on the ideas his father had instilled in him as a child.  But the industrialist, Auguste Manet, makes him an offer he cannot refuse, the chance to design a factory for the German war effort and the promise of more contracts in the future.  There are large amounts of money involved which help Lucien buy food and other items on the black market that make life sweeter during the occupation.  But in the end it is the feeling of pride in designing beautiful structures that keeps Lucien Bernard collaborating with the Germans on building the factories.  His wife accuses him of having sold his soul to the devil,  "No, traitor's not the right word.  You're a sort of architectural Mephistopheles.  You know, you sold your soul to the devil in order to design."

On the other hand, Bernard is finding himself as a man and he is learning that bravery can take many forms.  Bernard grows during this novel and really becomes a mensch as the plot develops.  This book is a page turner that keeps your pulse pumping as you root for the characters you become attached to survive and succeed in the end.  There are many characters in this book to love and a few to hate.  There are also many twists and turns as the plot develops and keeps the reader intrigued till the unexpected ending.  Beautifully constructed by Charles Belfoure.