Shortly before World War II, Paris Opera legend Madeleine Moreau schemes to keep newcomer Yvonne Chevallier, whose talent she fears, off the stage. But when Madeleine learns that Adolf Hitler will attend Germany’s pre-eminent opera festival, where she is expected to sing for him, Yvonne finds herself unexpectedly thrown into the limelight. Both women must decide what they are willing to do in pursuit of their art and, after the Nazis invade Paris in 1940, how they will use their fame to protect the men they love from the maelstrom of history.
Based loosely on the life of Germaine Lubin, the leading French soprano of her time (whom Hitler called an enchantress), THE PARIS UNDERSTUDY is for readers who appreciated the complex relationships and dramatic evocation of the war era in Kristin Hannah’s THE NIGHTINGALE, Kristin Harmel’s THE ROOM ON RUE AMÉLIE, Pam Jenoff’s THE LOST GIRLS OF PARIS, and Meg Waite Clayton’s THE POSTMISTRESS OF PARIS.
Born in Belgium, Aurélie Thiele grew up speaking French. When she moved to the U.S. in 1999 to get her doctorate at MIT, she shifted completely to reading and writing in English. She now teaches engineering management at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
Aurélie Thiele
THE PARIS UNDERSTUDY (Alcove Press)
Shortly before World War II, Paris Opera legend Madeleine Moreau schemes to keep newcomer Yvonne Chevallier, whose talent she fears, off the stage. But when Madeleine learns that Adolf Hitler will attend Germany’s pre-eminent opera festival, where she is expected to sing for him, Yvonne finds herself unexpectedly thrown into the limelight. Both women must decide what they are willing to do in pursuit of their art and, after the Nazis invade Paris in 1940, how they will use their fame to protect the men they love from the maelstrom of history.
Based loosely on the life of Germaine Lubin, the leading French soprano of her time (whom Hitler called an enchantress), THE PARIS UNDERSTUDY is for readers who appreciated the complex relationships and dramatic evocation of the war era in Kristin Hannah’s THE NIGHTINGALE, Kristin Harmel’s THE ROOM ON RUE AMÉLIE, Pam Jenoff’s THE LOST GIRLS OF PARIS, and Meg Waite Clayton’s THE POSTMISTRESS OF PARIS.
Born in Belgium, Aurélie Thiele grew up speaking French. When she moved to the U.S. in 1999 to get her doctorate at MIT, she shifted completely to reading and writing in English. She now teaches engineering management at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.