The Librarian of Burned Books by Brianna Labuskes

Author:Brianna Labuskes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2022-12-03T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

Paris

November 1936

The news that Hannah’s parents had received visas to England came on the first day of the book exhibition.

Hannah stared at the letter, stunned as she realized her parents were already aboard a ship headed toward Southampton without saying goodbye. If she were a different person, she might have cried. But Hannah had always known that in her parents’ rank of priorities she came as an afterthought.

They’d told her time and again that they didn’t blame her for what happened to Adam, even though she’d confessed the truth to them not long after he’d been dragged off to that concentration camp. But Hannah knew she’d been blinded by a pretty face, and they’d all paid the price for it.

The note informed Hannah that a hefty sum had been deposited in her bank account, enough to get her through several years. The only nod to the familial duty they still felt toward her.

Hannah read the entire message one more time, and then she breathed deep and said goodbye. Goodbye to parents who had never loved her the way parents should love a child, the way they had loved Adam.

Goodbye to the innocence of believing love could be unconditional.

Crossing the room to the fireplace in three quick strides, Hannah tossed the envelope into the flames. The ink and paper hissed their protest as they were devoured by the fire, as they devolved to ash.

Otto was her family now. She clung to that thought as she dressed, pinched color into her cheeks, slipped on her shoes, and waved adieu to Brigitte, who had warmed to her in recent days. She didn’t think about how she’d felt Otto drifting away from her since they’d moved to Paris.

Otto greeted her on the street with a happy, carefree smile that she hoped to mimic. As they walked toward the boulevard Saint-Germain and the exhibition, she steered the conversation toward silly, lighthearted gossip, trying to wash away the darkness of the morning. The darkness of what was going to come.

But at the first sight of the swastika, Hannah could no longer participate in idle chatter.

This was Paris.

This was free land.

This was not Nazi Germany.

Hannah repeated those facts over and over and over as she walked toward the banners that carried that sign of pure hate.

The Library of Burned Books had set up shop in the Société de Géographie two doors down from where Nazis in German military uniforms lingered outside a storefront. Mister Heinrich Mann and his equally famous brother, Thomas Mann, were both present, overseeing the library’s display, along with a handful of other big names, authors Hannah recognized from shelving their books time and again. Everyone was kind, everyone was cheerful, and every smile was brittle at the edges as eyes continued to wander toward the banners, toward the uniforms, toward the Parisians who were being enticed by the Nazi exhibit.

The library had put out apple cider for the occasion as well as pastries to lure in the casual passersby. Hannah made a

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