Queen Elizabeth I enacted laws that persecuted Catholics in England; in response, some daring inventors created secret hiding places within Catholic homes to hide the priests from raids. In the 2013 novel, The Paris Architect, Charles Belfour transposes this real historical event into a new context: hiding Jewish people from German forces in Occupied France. The story centers on an architect in Paris who undertakes the dangerous work of designing invisible hiding places, makes new friends, challenges his perceptions, and discovers both family and a sense of self-respect.

Plot Summary

Lucien Bernard is, by his own admission, as selfish as every other Parisian. In 1942, in Occupied France, the order of the day is survival. So, when Lucien receives an offer of a lucrative new design job, he jumps at it—until he learns the opportunity comes with a potentially deadly catch. Auguste Manet, a wealthy businessman, promises Lucien a ridiculously large amount of money, as well as a large factory commission, for a design that will hide a Jewish person on the run from the Germans. Performing such a task is a crime, punishable by death. Ultimately, thanks to a combination of desperation, greed, pride, and Nazi hatred, Lucien agrees to take the job—the first and only, he insists.

Despite his protests, Lucien finds himself designing several hiding places, each cleverer and more satisfying than the last. Slowly, he realizes that he is risking his life not for the money but for the pride of defeating the Germans. When one of his clever devices fails, costing a human life, Lucien confronts the reality of the consequences of his actions. People’s lives depend on him, so he even more deeply commits to the secret mission. As he continues his work, he takes in a Jewish boy, accidentally becoming a father. As his newfound family grows, Lucien’s secret work takes on a moral purpose. In the end, he is forced to destroy his greatest work of architecture, but he escapes with something more important: pride in the choices he has made and the lives he has saved.