Star Crossed: A True WWII Romeo and Juliet Love Story in Hitler's Paris [B1843]

2023 HCDJ in nice clean condition. Star Crossed is an epic true (and illustrated) story of love and resistance during WWII from the award-winning author of 999. Part historical portrait of life during the Occupation, part valentine to The City of Light and the resilience of its people, this true love story follows the romance between the Romeo and Juliet of war-torn Paris - a Catholic Resistance fighter and a Holocaust victim who meet at the famous Café Flore before war, prejudice, and disapproving families set them on divergent and tragically inevitable paths. A Goodreads Choice Awards Nominee "What a beautiful, heartbreaking story." -Erica Robuck, National Bestselling Author of Sisters of Night and Fog.

Paris, 1940. The City of Light has fallen under German occupation. Among patriotic Parisians, the pursuit of art, culture, and jazz has become a bold act of defiance. So has forbidden love for talented and spirited Jewish teenager Annette Zelman, a student at the Beaux-Arts, and dashing young Catholic poet Jean Jausion. Despite their devout families' vehement opposition, the young couple finds acceptance at the famed Café de Flore, whose habitues include Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Pablo Picasso, Django Reinhardt, and other luminaries of the Latin Quarter. For a time, Annette and Jean feel they have eluded the brute might of the relentless Nazis -- and more immediately, their parents' threats and demands. But as restrictions on the Jewish community escalate to arrests and deportations, the maleficent forces gathering around the young lovers set them on divergent and tragically inevitable paths. Drawn from never-before-published family letters and other treasures, as well as archival sources and exclusive interviews, Star-Crossed offers us precious insight into the Holocaust and the lives French people bravely led under the Hitler regime. This breathtaking true story of beauty, art, liberation, and the transformative power of love resonates with an intimate story of undying devotion, seen through the prism of history.

From recent-ish Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "A beautiful and very moving tribute to two beautiful people who lost their lives in the Holocaust! I cannot stop thinking about Annette and Jean and I am so grateful that this book was written."; "This book kept me reading; I did not want to put it down. I felt as though I got to know the people in it. It was a very sad, yet necessary story to be told."; "An emotionally intense book; one of those that leaves you wanting to delve deeper into everything related to the story it tells, even though the author already provides a thorough and comprehensive investigation. It was a meticulously crafted biography. In my opinion, the author's work is outstanding: rigorous, sensitive, and written with a profound depth that resonates. A truly memorable read. I loved it."; " A terrific, if at times troubling, read."; "I've always been fascinated with stories of the Holocaust. It still astounds me that humanity could come to such a place. Stories like Star Crossed by Heather Dune Macadam and Simon Worrall help us all keep the human factor in the unspeakable number of lives lost."