The Last Bookshop in Prague by Helen Parusel

What an amazing book. The book is so well written, with such believable characters and scenarios it seems more like a true story. It is well researched, and well written, and I couldn’t put it down – as hard as it was to read at some points.

Jana runs a bookshop, that was once owned by her mother, and lives upstairs with her widowed father. The bookshop isn’t doing very well – mostly because the Nazi’s have banned most of the books she wants to sell. When Captain Kovar comes in to buy a book Jana initially doesn’t trust him, however their shared love of literature brings them slowly together. When Jana hides a Jewish child, and then two more, and hides them in the countryside with a grandparent she realises she needs to help by opposing the Nazis wherever she can. When a friend gives up a job cleaning at the Nazi headquarters through pregnancy, Jana takes over for the money, but also to spy and report to the resistance.

I hadn’t heard of Helen Parusel, but I will certainly be looking out for more of her books. I absolutely loved this one.

 

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6903814156