The Propagandist - Paperback

by C?cile Desprairies (Author), Natasha Lehrer (Translator)

"Shows why historical fiction matters ... This haunting tale stayed with me."--Cara Black, author of Three Hours in Paris

In a grand Paris apartment, a young girl attends gatherings regularly organized by her mother. The women talk about beauty secrets and gossip, but the mood grows dark when the past, notably World War II, comes under coded discussion in hushed tones. Years later, the silent witness to these sessions has become a prominent historian, and with this chilling autobiographical novel she sets out to unmask enigmatic figures in and around her family. Why, she seeks to understand, did the narrator's relatives zealously collaborate with the Nazi occupiers of France, even remaining for decades afterward obsessive devotees of that evil lost cause?

Author Biography

Natasha Lehrer has translated books by Georges Bataille, Robert Desnos, Victor Segalen, Chantal Thomas and the Dalai Lama. Her co-translation of Nathalie Léger's Suite for Barbara Loden won the 2017 Scott Moncrieff Prize.