The Ballerina of Paris

Name: The Ballerina of Paris
Rating: 4.7 (50 reviews)

by Uri Dushy Book 4 in the Art of Resistance series.

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4.2(50)

Paris, 1942. Léa is the prima ballerina of the Palais Garnier, performing before German officers while concealing an identity and clandestine role that could lead to her arrest. Her closest friend Marguerite, another dancer who fled Odessa as a child, has also been transformed by occupation. Their reunion draws both women into a mission in which rehearsal rooms, costumes and the public glamour of the opera provide cover for dangerous work.

In Brooklyn in 1990, Charlotte discovers her grandmother’s worn pointe shoes, an old opera programme and a photograph no one has explained. Travelling to Paris, she finds the surviving witness to a story of resistance, divided loyalties and choices made under surveillance. The novel links the wartime use of performance as disguise to the family silences inherited by those born long after liberation.