Hachette

Apr 30, 2024 | 9781035417896 | RRP $32.99

I actually read this months ago not long after I got it – and I loved it – but somehow it got buried under a pile (of other books languishing waiting for their reviews). But just let me tell you, this is most certainly worth the read.

I was a bit hesitant when I asked for it, because I had been sent others and, under the misapprehension that they were seriously historical fiction, gave up when I realised they were purely thinly-disguised as such, and were actually pure chick lit/romance.

This absolutely gripping story does also have some romance but it is purely incidental to the main thread of the story, which is firmly fixed on a fictional account of Jessie Carson, New York librarian, who became a hero to the French people as the Great War ended.

Jessie took a leave of absence to work with the American Committee for Devastated France and how little she realised the demands that faced her. But this young woman was not to be daunted by bombed buildings, lack of support and lack of funds, resistant almost hostile opposition especially from French males and the repeated dashing of hopes.

Jessie doggedly pushed back against it all and created the first children’s libraries, turned by-then disused field ambulances into mobile libraries, took books to remote farms and enlisted help from willing helpers, many of whom she trained to be the first French female librarians

. And when her work was completed, she returned to New York and became invisible. Then in 1987 another female NYPD librarian stumbled upon a reference to Jessie and began an exhaustive and thorough search for this extraordinary woman. It makes for absolutely fascinating and inspirational reading. It gets an unqualified 5 📚📚📚📚📚 and, yes, it’s an adult book but it would be utterly suitable for older readers interested in the recovery of France post WWI and/or libraries – or those just looking for an engaging historical read.

Behind the Book

The French Connection

Remembering the American librarians of post-WWI France