The Paris Architect: A Novel (40 page)

Reading Group Guide

1. Why did the majority of people in France refuse to help the Jews during World War II?

2. Do you think anti-Semitism influenced a person’s decision on whether to help others?

3. What do you think of the people who hid Jews in exchange for money? Was it evil and exploitive or a fair business transaction?

4. In the beginning of the novel, Lucien didn’t care about what happened to the Jews. Discuss how his character evolved throughout the novel. How did your opinion of him change?

5. The Germans were disgusted that the French always informed on one another during the Occupation. Would you assume that this is a common war practice? Why? In what ways does war bring out the worst in people? In what ways does it bring out the best in people?

6. Many spouses abandoned each other because one was Jewish. What did you think when Juliette Trenet’s husband left her? Is there any defense for what he did?

7. One reason Lucien helped Jews was to get architectural commissions from Manet. Did you agree with the French Resistance? Did Lucien’s love of design and the need to prove his talent cross the line into collaboration with the enemy?

8. Most fiction and films portray Nazis as monsters during World War II. Do you believe that some German military men secretly hated or doubted what they were doing? Does following the crowd make these men just as bad as those who carried out their duties without conscience?

9. Discuss the unusual relationship between Lucien and Herzog. Can two men from warring countries be friends?

10. Lucien was already taking an enormous risk by hiding Jews for Manet; why do you think he agreed to take in Pierre?

11. What was your impression of Father Jacques? What kind of role do you think faith plays throughout the novel?

12. Adele had no qualms about sleeping with the enemy. Why would she take such a risk?

13. Bette could have her pick of men but chose Lucien. Discuss what made him special in her eyes. What are the most important qualities you look for in a friend/significant other? Would you be willing to compromise on any of these qualities? For what?

14. If you were a gentile living under the Nazis in World War II, do you think you would have had the courage to hide Jews? What consequences are you willing to face to help others?

15. It’s easy to say, knowing what we do about the horrors that occurred during WWII, that we would have helped Jews with nowhere to hide. How do you think you’d react if a similar situation occurred today? Do you think it’s even possible for a similar situation to occur in our age and day? Why? Why not?

16. Suppose you had been taken from your apartment by Captain Bruckner and lined up in the street. If you knew your life was about to end, what would you be thinking about?

17. If you were under the stairs in the Geibers’ place during the Gestapo’s search, how would you have reacted?

18. Schlegal was disappointed that the people he tortured always talked. What do you think were the motivations behind someone who talked and someone who didn’t? If you were in a situation where someone was trying to get information from you, what would be the final straw to make you talk?

Author Q & A

1. How did you first become interested in writing?

When I went back to Columbia University, I had to write a thesis for my master’s degree. I found that I really enjoyed doing the research and writing the thesis. I’d never written a word before that. So I decided that I’d like to write a book. I co-authored
The Baltimore Rowhouse
, then went on to write three more books on architectural history on my own. I also became a freelance writer for the
Baltimore Sun
and
New York Times
, which I didn’t enjoy as much as writing the books.

2. Why did you start writing fiction?

Once I had some nonfiction experience under my belt, I thought I’d try fiction. John Grisham was my inspiration: a real-life attorney who wrote crime novels based on the legal world. I was a real-life architect who could write fiction based on architecture. And I always admired writers who had dual careers, such as Wallace Stevens, who was a lawyer, Somerset Maugham and William Carlos Williams, who were doctors.

3. Who are your favorite fiction writers?

There’s just one, Anne Tyler. She’s superb at observing human behavior and emotions. And her novels are based in Baltimore, my hometown, so I enjoy identifying the Baltimore references and geography in her books.

4. What was your inspiration for
The Paris Architect
?

For
The Paris Architect
, I transposed a real-life historical event to a different time. During the reign of Elizabeth I, Catholicism was repressed, and the saying of Mass was outlawed. But priests throughout England refused to obey and continued to worship in secret in manor houses. As a precaution, carpenters designed and constructed “priest holes” for them to hide in if the house were discovered. (If caught, the priests, as well as the people who hid them, would be tortured and executed.) When the Queen’s soldiers raided a suspected house, they would look for days and never find the priests who were hiding under their noses.

Using Occupied Paris during World War II as my setting, I turned the Elizabethan-age carpenter into a gentile architect who designs temporary hiding places for Jews escaping the Nazis.

The other inspiration would be that of my mother’s experience during World War II. After Germany defeated Poland in 1939, many Poles were forced into labor camps to produce war material for the Germans. My mother wasn’t Jewish, but she and hundreds of thousands of gentile Poles had to work in factories under horrific conditions, functioning basically as slaves. She was working in a factory that made chewing tobacco for German soldiers. One day, a German supervisor discovered she could speak German and French and found her a job as a translator at the factory in Nordhausen, Germany, where the V-2 rockets were being produced. She worked as a housekeeper and translator for the contractor who constructed tunnels inside the Hartz Mountains, where the rockets were assembled. She lived with the contractor’s family in relative comfort while a few hundred meters away, thousands died building rockets. The German supervisor’s one act of kindness saved her. People can’t survive terrible times without help from others. So I wanted to include those kinds of behavior in the book.

5. What research did you do before writing the book?

I studied as much as I could about life in Paris during World War II. The best reference was Jean-Paul Sartre’s essay “Paris under the Occupation.”

6. What’s the process you use in writing a book?

I do it the way a building is constructed. First, I build the foundation and a structural skeleton, which is the basic plot structure of the novel. Then, in layers, I flesh out the structure, adding details that give it description and depth. The last layer would be tiny details like the design of a handrail or the door handle on the front doorway in a building.

7. Who were your favorite characters in the book?

Aside from Lucien, the architect, it would be Father Jacques. It’s a little known fact that a lot of Catholic priests in France were arrested and deported for helping Jews, especially children. I wanted to portray a really brave person committed to helping his fellow man. The scene with Father Jacques being interrogated by the Gestapo colonel is probably my favorite. He isn’t scared or intimidated by the Gestapo in the least and stands up to them. He knows he’s done the right thing by helping the children and isn’t afraid to die for it.

Acknowledgments

A successful author once gave me a very good piece of advice. He said that one of the most important things in writing fiction is that you need to find someone who absolutely believes in your novel. He was right. And I was lucky enough to find two such special people. The first person was my literary agent, Susan Ginsburg of Writers House. Her experience and guidance were of immense help to me. She gave me confidence and encouragement during a very dark period in my life. I’ll always remember how she stood by me. The second person was Shana Drehs, editorial manager of Sourcebooks Landmark, who believed in an architect who was a first-time novelist. Her enthusiasm about the book gave me great confidence, and her editorial skills made my novel sharper and better.

I thank both of
these people for believing in my work.

Charles Belfoure

Westminster, MD

About the Author

An architect by profession, Charles Belfoure has published several architectural histories, two of which have won awards from the Maryland Historical Trust. He was also given grants by the Graham Foundation and the James Marston Fitch Foundation for architectural research. A graduate of the Pratt Institute and Columbia University, he taught at Pratt as well as at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. His area of specialty is historic preservation, and he writes a blog on historic preservation and architecture:
www.thewickedarchitect.com
. He has been a freelance writer for the
Baltimore
Sun
and the
New
York
Times
.