September 30, 2026
While talking about books with other readers enhances the reading experience, I love when the conversation includes an author as well. My book group was lucky enough to have Nadia Hashimi join us on Monday night to discuss her latest novel, CITY OF WIDOWS (see the photo above). The book follows three characters as the calendar is turning to August 31, 2021, when we were evacuating people from Afghanistan. For those who worked with the United States --- and those who spoke out against the Taliban --- there is a race to get on one of the final US flights leaving the country.
Editorial Content for The Barman of the Ritz
Teaser
A celebrated bartender at the Ritz Hotel during the Nazi occupation of Paris harbors a dangerous secret in this international bestseller based on a true story.
Promo
A celebrated bartender at the Ritz Hotel during the Nazi occupation of Paris harbors a dangerous secret in this international bestseller based on a true story.
About the Book
A celebrated bartender at the Ritz Hotel during the Nazi occupation of Paris harbors a dangerous secret in this “magnificent” (ELLE), “brilliant” (Le Parisien) international bestseller based on a true story.
Paris, 1940. The Nazis have descended on Paris, and the Occupation has begun. Businesses across the city have shuttered, but the legendary Ritz Hotel remains open, its dazzling lights still burning bright on the Place Vendôme. When it becomes the favorite watering hole of the occupying forces, its barman, Frank Meier, is forced to adapt to a new clientele. But Frank has a secret: he is Jewish.
Tensions rise as the war progresses, but Frank refuses to leave his post behind the bar. Unbeknownst to the Nazi officers he serves night after night, Frank forms precarious alliances with unlikely accomplices in order to save other Jewish families in the city and keep his loved ones alive.
Inspired by real events, with the highest of stakes and a brilliant protagonist, THE BARMAN OF THE RITZ is a heady cocktail of history and fiction set in one of Paris’s most glamorous places, diving deep into the impossible choices of an ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances.
