At the Heart of the Storm

Content : When a family’s will to survive is stronger than hatred…

France, 1937.
Forced to flee Nazi Germany, Alexander Mendel and his family had to abandon their Cologne bookstore and seek refuge in Paris, where they hope to rebuild their lives. But when war breaks out on 3 September 1939, their application for French naturalisation is delayed, and the family is torn apart: Alexander and his daughter Lise are interned in “undesirable” camps, while Clara and her mother join the Free Zone.

Relentlessly and at great personal risk, the Mendel family struggles to regain the path to freedom. Will they ever be reunited in a world at peace?

After The Bookseller of Cologne, winner of the 2021 Grand Prize for Youth Literature from the Société des Gens de Lettres, discover the other side of the story: that of a Jewish family forced to flee Nazi Germany and seek refuge in France.

2023 Youth Historical Novel Prize (Blois).