Michael Wallner

Audiobook performed by Paul Michael

Roth is a young German army corporal, assigned to Gestapo headquarters in occupied Paris so that he can use his flawless French as an interpreter during interrogations. He’s disturbed by the torture he witnesses, but fulfills his duty as a soldier, accurately translating the words if not the emotions expressed. When not on duty, however, he slips away from his hotel billet, dons civilian clothes and walks the streets of Paris disguised as the Frenchman, show more Antoine. Being out of uniform, by itself, is a punishable offense, but he crosses the line when he falls for Chantal, the daughter of a bookseller. He does not reveal his true identity to her, and she hides her allegiance to the Resistance.

The reader knows that this star-crossed relationship is bound to end badly, but the way in which Wallner reveals the story kept me in a delirious state of suspense. Make no mistake; this is NOT a hearts-and-flowers romantic escapade, but a gritty and serious novel full of hardship and heartache. There are hints that they’ve been found out, but then they are free to meet. There are several close calls when I was sure that one or the other would be captured and/or killed. Because Roth works for the Gestapo he witnesses and knows the interrogation techniques employed, yet he seems not to remember those ploys when it’s most important. I found myself yelling at the CD player, “It’s a trick!” more than once … and sometimes I was right.

I love how Wallner develops Roth from a naïve, apolitical young man away from home, to a wily, cautious and determined man. He may be beaten but he is not down. On the other hand, I was disappointed in how little he developed the women in this story – Chantal and Anna Rieleck-Sostman (a German woman who runs the Gestapo captain’s office). Despite this, however, I think the book merits five stars; I was captivated from beginning to end and will be talking about it for weeks or months, I’m sure.

Paul Michael does a fine job narrating the audiobook. I don’t speak French but his French sounded pretty good to me. I was glad I had the text handy, however, because I needed to see the written words to puzzle out the French phrases. His pacing was good and he was able to differentiate the characters sufficiently. show less

April in Paris explores the moral dilemma of being a soldier in an occupied city, a soldier who has no military ambitions and generally seems indifferent to the political structure of his country. He is assigned to the Gestapo headquarters to work as a translator during the interrogation of prisoners. His escape takes the form of dropping his military uniform every now and then, dressing as a civilian and pretending to be a Frenchman. Sounds harmless enough, but German soldiers were under show more strict orders never to appear on the streets out of uniform.

During his wanderings, he meets and becomes infatuated with a young French girl. Eventually he realizes that she is in fact working for the Resistance. Although, on the surface a love story, I found this more of a perceptive, intimate look at a young man, torn from his carefree student life, put into a uniform and forced to do things to prove he is a loyal German soldier, things that were destroying his soul. The romantic aspect just didn’t connect with me, they spent very little time with each other, instead, probably due to his loneliness, he built this up in his head to be more than it was.

As we all know every German soldier during World War II was not a Nazi, and I found this an interesting subject to read about. This book is both thought provoking and suspenseful as it delves into one young man’s apathy and transformation as he realizes that during war, one can’t just drift along. Excellently translated from German, April In Paris details life in occupied Paris which makes a fascinating backdrop to this story of both an impossible love and of facing up to your inner convictions. show less

Here's a book I knew nothing about prior to reading its title. The book title grabbed me because I was looking to read a book for a challenge titled (appropriately enough) "April in Paris" in which the book needed to be set in Paris. I found the book on BookMooch, read a few pages on Amazon, and decided I would like it.

The setting is Paris during the German occupation of France during WWII. Corporal Roth is a German soldier whose job it was to translate from French to German for the officers show more who were torturing prisoners into revealing secrets. Roth tried not to let his job overwhelm him and took solace by secretly assuming the identity of a French civilian. He even named himself Antoine and tried to befriend a few people who lived in Paris. This, however, did not work to his advantage and soon he found that his difficulties multiplying.

This book reminded me a lot of the setting in Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky's novel of German-occupied France, although the story is very different. Wallner's book deals mostly with Germans capturing and torturing members of the French Resistance.

A reader who knows no French should beware of the large amount of French narrative in this book. It takes place mostly in conversations, but I felt compelled to look up the translation while reading because I was interested in picking up details of the story.

I'm not sure I believe this story completely in the way it's told. It's a love story that is based on two people not spending much time together at all. In addition, I'm not certain I believe that Corporal Roth could have physically done what was described in the book. Nevertheless, I found this a most engaging story and was glad that this book just came into my possession by chance. show less

Corporal Roth is a German soldier stationed in France. His primary responsibility is the translation of interrogation sessions of any French citizens believed to be conspirators against the Germans. He carries out his job without much thought to what is asked of him but he longs to return to his former posting which was less gory. In the meantime, he sneaks out of his hotel almost every day and dresses as an every day French man and mingles with the local population(which is against the show more law). While on these illegal excursions, he meets and falls in love with the local book keeper's daughter, Chantal. He soon discovers that she is a revolutionary and he gets implicated in a bombing that she and her compatriots organized. Unfortunately, his secret is discovered after this incident and he becomes a resident in the prison where he had once translated others cries.

This first part of this book was amazing and I read with real enjoyment. The descriptions of Paris under occupation were absolutely fascinating and gave a sense of what life may have been like for an occupied population. Corporal Roth was a very sympathetic character whose decisions and well being were of major concern to me. But something seemed to have happened somewhere along the way and the book got dull and predictable. The love story was not at all compelling and there was nothing that transpired between Roth and Chantal that made me understand Roth's undying love for Chantal. Chantal seemed to vacillate between what looked like indifference to acquiescence. What was so special about Chantal, a woman he barely knew, that would lead Roth to risk his own safety to save hers. By the end, I was left disappointed. A book that started off so well ended up feeling like its potential was never realized. None of the characters were developed beyond paltry descriptions and I was left in the dark as to who they were and why they behaved as they did. I did not hate the book but I was definitely not in love and its not a book that I would ever pick up again. show less