Code Name Camille by Kathryn Gauci
Nathalie Fontaine is determined to join La Résistance in Paris. Paris is a city under occupation. No one is to be out past curfew, and German soldiers can stop and search anyone, any time they choose. Nathalie immerses herself in Parisian culture while working for La Résistance. However, something soon becomes very clear. There is a double agent in their midst. The question is… Who?
Code Name Camille was impossible to put down. I was utterly immersed and committed to this story from the opening sentence to the very last word. This is a vastly entertaining tale, with a very compelling plot. When it became evident that there was a double-agent I was trying to guess as to who that was — it turned out I was wrong!
Gauci has written an extremely readable tale. Great Characters. Great narrative. Great Story.
17 January 2019
In Code Name Camille. Kathryn Gauci shows her enormous talent in that her work can describe horrific events which you may never feel. witness or endure. She takes you into the fear experienced by Nathalie as she deliberately puts aside her comparatively safe country life and travels to Paris where she joins the resistance and by chance, she finds herself in the elegant world of couture. Knowledgeable about fine material and fashion Gauci weaves a story of traitors, of Paris under occupation, of suffering and how the citizens learn to live in their various ways. The book is written in perceptive prose as smooth as the silk with which some of her characters work. For this story alone it is worth buying The Darkest Hour.
Roberta Kagan”s Bubbe’s Nightingale is the first story and set mainly in the Warsaw Ghetto. Its realistic tone gives away that much of the plot could be based on true emotions. A book that will stay with you. Most readers will be aware that the Jews in this Polish city experienced some of the worst conditions during WW2, but few will know the details of the deprivation and Kagan’s account of a Jewish woman who survived and how she adapted later to life in America is haunting.
in The Enemy at the Gate by Mary D. Brooks, Mussolini is occupying Central Greece and the Germans are expected in the town of Farsala where the mountains are promising a refuge and where some have reason to protect the Jews being rounded up for deportation. Occupation was really difficult for the Greeks and Brooks paints a convincing picture of the suffering, death, torture but also love in these conditions. In this dense story the author takes you into the hot plains of Central Greece with few hiding places except the mountains and those around Tempe, and also Lamia, have always been tempting and often fatal battlegrounds for the Greeks. Zoe, a young girl of Spartan ancestry, is conscious of the history, particularly at Thermopylae.
I am looking forward to reading the seven other stories in this wonderful anthology.
Liza Perrat‘s review
Feb 11, 2019
5***** it was amazing
I live in a rural French village that suffered under Nazi Occupation during WWII. The region became an important resistance centre, and my personal interest in this topic was what first drew me to The Darkest Hour.
A collection of ten novellas by some of today’s bestselling WWII historical fiction authors, The Darkest Hour moves from the brutality of the Warsaw Ghetto and the determination of the Jewish Resistance, strong Catriona searching for her beloved father, to reluctant informer, Sabine, struggling to save her husband from the Gestapo. There is Josef and Jan’s order to assassinate the cruel and terrible Nazi elite, Reinhard Heydrich, Chinese resistor, Yuan Wen-Ying determined to avenge her countryman after the Japanese rape of Nanking, young Zoe’s anger at the occupation of Greece, Céline and the German invasion of Jersey, Nathalie Fontaine, determined to join the Parisian Résistance, young Charles, sneaking out at night to chalk the letter “V” onto buildings (Vive la France), and last, but by no means least, young American Charlie, who finds himself in Germany, but does not believe his sadistic uncle’s Nazi ideology.
Each novella in this eclectic collection is a gripping and compelling account of those courageous and committed people who chose not to surrender, but to fight for their country and their cause, whatever the outcome.
Readers can enjoy the whole book from start to finish or, from the short synopsis at the beginning of each novella, just dip into any particular story that appeals. However, I would recommend reading every one of these wonderful resistance stories.
I would highly recommend The Darkest Hour, and urge you to purchase this book not just because it is a fascinating read but because all proceeds are donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC.
22 March 2019
I have a reasonable grasp of the history of the Second World War, but to read this eclectic collection of resistance and bravery was quite an eye-opener. I think that can be attributed to seeing the war through the eyes of the protagonists: perhaps a boy fighting not with weapons but chalk and paint, lovers in a Warsaw ghetto, a young woman unwittingly caught between Nazi sympathisers and the French resistance, or another searching for her father behind enemy lines. The surprise inclusions were a short story about the resistance in China during the Japanese occupation and the German invasion of Jersey. Ten fiction authors have contributed to this collection and I was impressed with being able to read about the same conflict from very different perspectives.
colleen yates the best book I have read in a long lo g time.
19 February 2019
I was enthralled by all stories in this book. Thought it was one story and was pleasantly surprised (and not bored) by the difference views of people.
5***** 
