A review by jessmferguson
A Bookshop in Berlin: The Rediscovered Memoir of One Woman's Harrowing Escape from the Nazis by Françoise Frenkel

4.0

The French version was rediscovered in an attic in 2010 and republished. The English edition begins with a preface introduction to Madam Frenkel, and the translation of her writing is beautiful. Despite the tragedies of the story chronicled, Frenkel celebrates the good she encounters during the war. My only issue is occasionally it feels as though she skips over details and generalizes events. I would have enjoyed reading more about the actual Berlin bookshop, and as the preface points out, she completely omits her spouse from the story. Also, I’m not sure why the new publication changes the title from the much more apt “No Place to Lay My Head.”