Publishers Weekly
09/25/2023
Wheeler (In Our Other Lives) delivers an evocative and well-crafted story of two American journalists on a potentially fatal collision course in WWII Europe. Jane Anderson, “famous for her audacity, her beauty, her appetite for headlines,” elicits admiration and resentment from her peers. Unlike the graceful and charismatic Anderson, glum Marthe Hess can only move “like a stork stuck in mud,” due to a childhood injury. Despite their differences, the women bond when they meet in Paris in 1938. Hess is flattered to be considered a friend of her celebrity colleague, and to be taken into Anderson’s confidence. A prologue foreshadows the friendship’s dark turn, revealing that after the German occupation of France, the relationship will deteriorate to such an extent that Hess would “one day cross the border into Germany with the intention of killing her friend Jane.” As the story develops, Wheeler moves back and forth in time to show what takes his protagonists to the brink of violence. He effectively makes uses of the Damoclean sword he’s devised to maintain suspense, and the book’s ornate prose captures the period’s unsettling combination of horror and progress, such as in the description of a new arena in Berlin: “Newly encased in clean white stucco, it looked baroque in that gleaming German way, like a stone block dropped from the heavens.” This is one to savor. (Nov.)
From the Publisher
The book is altogether a good read that gets more magnetic as the story unfolds. A very interesting, and different, view of life under WWII distress.”—The Paris Insider
“This evocative and well-crafted story from Wheeler (In Our Other Lives) tracks two American journalists on a potentially fatal collision course in WWII Europe…The book’s ornate prose captures the period’s unsettling combination of horror and progress…This is one to savor.”—Publishers Weekly
“Combines the smoky, morally complex, romantic atmosphere of WWII–era films with the sternly enthusiastic tone of their accompanying newsreels…This retro yet oddly fresh take on WWII captures the romance of wartime, but also the decadence and desperation.”
—Kirkus Reviews
"Paris was home for the foreign correspondents who covered events in Europe for British and American media outlets during the interwar period. With the fall of France in 1940, a few of them such as the factual William Joyce, Robert Best, and Jane Anderson stayed behind and were recruited by Joseph Goebbels to broadcast treasonous Nazi propaganda from Germany. Theodore Wheeler’s informed and fascinating novel uses the invented character of fashion reporter Marthe Hess to float us through this dark milieu and acquaint us with the financial, antisemitic, and often unthinking justifications for a journalist’s alliance with evil. The War Begins in Paris is a great idea for a book and it’s insightfully and thrillingly told.”—Ron Hansen, author of Hitler's Niece
“This vivid novel takes on one of my favorite subjects: journalists in the war zone. Here we have ‘radio traitors’ among them, everybody wound tight, with questions of truth and trust all caught up in threat and propaganda. With fascinating parallels to our own cultural moment, The War Begins in Paris is a captivating and vibrant—and utterly present—portrait of chaos.”—Timothy Schaffert, author of The Perfume Thief
"An exhilarating rush of a novel, The War Begins in Paris tells the story of a woman torn between what is right and what is easy. With sharp, propulsive prose, Theodore Wheeler’s third novel is a tender search for courage and humanity in the face of the unthinkable."—Jenny Tinghui Zhang, author of Four Treasures of the Sky
"This powerful, immersive novel is simultaneously lush and chilling. Theodore Wheeler transports us to a place and time where friendships make it harder, not easier, to chart a moral path forward, and masterfully explores how love and loyalty can, for better and for worse, change what we’re willing to do, and who we understand ourselves to be."—Caitlin Horrocks, author of The Vexations
"Propulsive, immersive, and beautifully rendered, Theodore Wheeler’s The War Begins in Paris is that rare novel that’s both contemplative and energetic, pulse-pounding and utterly devastating. Through Mielle and Jane, Wheeler deftly illuminates themes of friendship, love, sacrifice, and heroism, and shows us how loyalty and conviction can move in unpredictable patterns under wartime duress. This is a major gut-punch of a novel, and I, for one, am thankful it exists."—James Han Mattson, author of Reprieve
“A riveting novel with dynamic characters, The War Begins in Paris illuminates how intoxicating and destructive obsession can be. Wheeler ratchets up the drama with his nuanced, glowing prose, and portrays two complex women who believe in their ideals, no matter the peril. I couldn’t put it down.”—Kassandra Montag, author of After the Flood
“The War Begins in Paris tracks, in scrupulous and forensic detail, a relationship toxified by the lies of Nazism.”—Luke Jennings, author of Codename Villanelle
"This book is necessary at this moment in time. And it’s an important work to hold close for those of us looking for hope to find us on the flip side of worry." —Little Village Magazine
author of Codename Villanelle Luke Jennings
The War Begins in Paris tracks, in scrupulous and forensic detail, a relationship toxified by the lies of Nazism.”
author of Reprieve James Han Mattson
Propulsive, immersive, and beautifully rendered, Theodore Wheeler’s The War Begins in Paris is that rare novel that’s both contemplative and energetic, pulse-pounding and utterly devastating. Through Mielle and Jane, Wheeler deftly illuminates themes of friendship, love, sacrifice, and heroism, and shows us how loyalty and conviction can move in unpredictable patterns under wartime duress. This is a major gut-punch of a novel, and I, for one, am thankful it exists.
author of The Vexations Caitlin Horrocks
This powerful, immersive novel is simultaneously lush and chilling. Theodore Wheeler transports us to a place and time where friendships make it harder, not easier, to chart a moral path forward, and masterfully explores how love and loyalty can, for better and for worse, change what we’re willing to do, and who we understand ourselves to be.
author of After the Flood Kassandra Montag
A riveting novel with dynamic characters, The War Begins in Paris illuminates how intoxicating and destructive obsession can be. Wheeler ratchets up the drama with his nuanced, glowing prose, and portrays two complex women who believe in their ideals, no matter the peril. I couldn’t put it down.
author of Four Treasures of the Sky Jenny Tinghui Zhang
An exhilarating rush of a novel, The War Begins in Paris tells the story of a woman torn between what is right and what is easy. With sharp, propulsive prose, Theodore Wheeler’s third novel is a tender search for courage and humanity in the face of the unthinkable.
author of Hitler's Niece Ron Hansen
Paris was home for the foreign correspondents who covered events in Europe for British and American media outlets during the interwar period. With the fall of France in 1940, a few of them such as the factual William Joyce, Robert Best, and Jane Anderson stayed behind and were recruited by Joseph Goebbels to broadcast treasonous Nazi propaganda from Germany. Theodore Wheeler’s informed and fascinating novel uses the invented character of fashion reporter Marthe Hess to float us through this dark milieu and acquaint us with the financial, antisemitic, and often unthinking justifications for a journalist’s alliance with evil. The War Begins in Paris is a great idea for a book and it’s insightfully and thrillingly told.
author of The Perfume Thief Timothy Schaffert
This vivid novel takes on one of my favorite subjects: journalists in the war zone. Here we have ‘radio traitors’ among them, everybody wound tight, with questions of truth and trust all caught up in threat and propaganda. With fascinating parallels to our own cultural moment, The War Begins in Paris is a captivating and vibrant—and utterly present—portrait of chaos.
Kirkus Reviews
2023-08-30
Historical fiction about an American journalist turned Fascist combines the smoky, morally complex, romantic atmosphere of WWII–era films with the sternly enthusiastic tone of their accompanying newsreels.
Wheeler traces the intense, sexually charged friendship of two American reporters from their first meeting in a Paris café in 1938 and through the ensuing war. The prologue describes Jane Anderson, nicknamed the Georgia Peach, and Marthe Hess, called Mielle, with ominous matter-of-factness so reminiscent of an Orson Welles narration that readers will rush to Google their names to see if either actually existed. Unscrambling which characters are real or fictional here, let alone trustworthy or villainous, is difficult because so many of the real figures are long forgotten, though not the war correspondents. Reports from William L. Shirer and Edward R. Murrow, among others, introduce chapters, while various real and imaginary correspondents play important roles in the storyline. Mielle, who mostly works for “a syndicate of ladies’ journals in the Great Plains,” agrees with the correspondents’ ideals, but their pretentious self-assurance intimidates her. Instead, she is emotionally drawn to flamboyant, pro-Fascist Jane. They meet on Mielle’s 24th birthday; Jane is 50, though claiming to be 36. After great success reporting on WWI, Jane has led an increasingly dissolute life. Now a Franco devotee, she declares, “Fascists represent the law….History is on their side.” Wheeler’s depiction of Jane shows how dangerously appealing authoritarianism can be and how corrosive it is to one's character. Soon Jane is pushing Mielle toward uncomfortable ethical choices that peak after Kristallnacht. The novel then skips ahead three years and shifts into a Hitchcock-like plot. (An unnecessary, unfortunate subplot gives Mielle “visions.”) Mielle becomes more than a fictional witness to history when an American army intelligence officer who’s probably in love with her (think Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman) enlists her for a dangerous spy mission to 1942 Berlin. There her reunion with Jane, now broadcasting Nazi propaganda to America, is brief but life-changing.
This retro yet oddly fresh take on WWII captures the romance of wartime, but also the decadence and desperation.
