A stunning debut WWII novel from award-winning short story writer Michelle Wright, about the small but courageous acts a young woman performs against the growing anti-Jewish measures in Nazi-occupied Paris.

January 1940: After a devastating tragedy, a young Australian woman Lucie and her mother Yvonne are forced to leave home and flee to France. As the Second World War engulfs Europe, they draw upon their artistic talents and Lucie risks her own safety to engage in small acts of defiance against the occupying Nazi forces and the collaborationist French regime,

In the first chapter of this book, there is a very powerful quote from Lucie’s father - “There’s no such thing as doing nothing. Doing nothing is still a choice. A choice to stand aside and let it happen.”

Michelle Wright gives us a sensitive depiction of life in WWII’s Occupied France. In 1940, after the death of her father and the loss of their home, 16-year-old Lucie and her French-born mother Yvonne are forced to move from Australia to Paris to live with Yvonne’s brother in a cramped apartment. Lucie soon becomes friends with Aline, a young French university student who is Jewish. Aline keeps telling Lucie that even small acts of defiance are important, so Lucie takes that to heart and knows she cannot make the choice to do nothing. So she begins to take a courageous stand by joining Aline in small acts of defiance.

Surprisingly, this beautifully written and well-researched book is Wright’s debut novel. She made the characters real to me. I felt the confusion, disbelief, and outright fear all the occupants of Paris were traumatized as the Nazis took over their city.

The Jews were targeted by the Nazis and taken away never to be seen again, while the French saw their city and their countrymen changed. Some were quick to throw the Jews under the bus and become collaborators, while others fought against the Nazis. There is a focus here mainly on how ordinary women were taking a stand against the Nazis.

While this is a heart-wrenching story at times, I took away from it just how brave and resilient the people living under occupation had to be.

I highly recommend this book to those who enjoy WWII historical fiction. ( )

An interesting editorial dilemma arises as the narrative reaches a crescendo in this interesting debut novel from Melbourne author Michelle Wright.

Small Acts of Defiance is not another of those clichéd historical novels of female Resistance in WW2 France. This one concerns an Australian — still in her late teens when she arrives in Paris with her newly widowed French-born mother Yvonne after a family tragedy. They arrive just as Paris surrenders to German Occupation but the process of settling in is made easier because Lucie grew up speaking fluent French with Yvonne. This enables Lucie to put her artistic talents to good use for Margot, who runs an art supplies shop, and thus she makes the acquaintance of a Jewish engraver called Samuel Hirsch and his granddaughter Aline.

It is through Samuel and Aline that Lucie becomes aware of the long history of French anti-Semitism and how readily collaborationists are cooperating with German discrimination, appropriation of property, slave labour camps and deportations. Revealing the dark underbelly of French wartime history that tends to valorise French Resistance, the focus of this novel is resistance against the oppression of the Jews. The context is portrayed through the moral perspective of an outsider who does not yet know of the genocidal intent of that oppression, but recognises that it was imposed by the Germans and actively supported by existing French anti-Semitism. Her own uncle is explicit in his irrational hatred of Jews.

The novel contrasts Yvonne’s fear of getting involved with the activities of Margot, Lucie, Aline and their friend Robert, to interrogate the moral issues that arise from resistance in occupied territory where the occupiers react with brutal reprisals.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2021/10/10/small-acts-of-defiance-by-michelle-wright/ ( )