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Janet Skeslien Charles

Biography

Janet Skeslien Charles

Janet Skeslien Charles is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of THE PARIS LIBRARY. Her work has been translated into 37 languages. She has spent a decade researching Jessie Carson (MISS MORGAN'S BOOK BRIGADE) at The Morgan Library, the NYPL and archives across France. Her shorter work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, The Sydney Morning Herald, LitHub and the anthology MONTANA NOIR.

Janet Skeslien Charles

Books by Janet Skeslien Charles

by Janet Skeslien Charles - Fiction, Women's Fiction

Paris, 1995: It’s been five years since Lily Jacobsen and her best friend, Mary Louise, arrived from their small town of Froid, Montana. Determined to establish themselves as artists --- Lily, a novelist, and Mary Louise, a painter --- they share a tiny sixth-floor walkup and survive on brie and baguettes. When Mary Louise abruptly moves out, Lily feels alone in the City of Light for the first time and needs a new way to support herself. She lands a job as the programs manager at the American Library in Paris, following in the footsteps of her French neighbor, Odile, who infused her childhood with tales of heroic World War II librarians. Here in the storied halls of the ALP, Lily meets an incredible cast of characters, each with their own stories...and agendas.

by Janet Skeslien Charles - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction

1918: As the Great War rages, Jessie Carson takes a leave of absence from the New York Public Library to work for the American Committee for Devastated France. This group of international women help rebuild destroyed French communities just miles from the front. Upon arrival, Jessie strives to establish something that the French have never seen --- children’s libraries. She turns ambulances into bookmobiles and trains the first French female librarians. Then she disappears. 1987: When NYPL librarian and aspiring writer Wendy Peterson stumbles across a passing reference to Jessie Carson in the archives, she becomes consumed with learning her fate. Eventually she discovers that they have more in common than their work at New York’s famed library, but she has no idea their paths will converge in surprising ways across time.

by Janet Skeslien Charles - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction

Paris, 1939: Young and ambitious Odile Souchet has it all: her handsome police officer beau and a dream job at the American Library in Paris. When the Nazis march into Paris, Odile stands to lose everything she holds dear, including her beloved library. Together with her fellow librarians, Odile joins the Resistance with the best weapons she has: books. But when the war finally ends, instead of freedom, Odile tastes the bitter sting of unspeakable betrayal. Montana, 1983: Lily is a lonely teenager looking for adventure in small-town Montana. Her interest is piqued by her solitary, elderly neighbor. As Lily uncovers more about her neighbor’s mysterious past, she finds that they share a love of language, the same longings and the same intense jealousy, never suspecting that a dark secret from the past connects them.