Writer Charles Kaiser was in Paris for the publication of his book “The Cost of Courage” in French

Eighteen months after the US publication of his major biography of the Boulloche family, “The Cost of Courage“, Charles Kaiser was in Paris for the book signing of the French translation, “Le Prix du Courage” published by Le Seuil. And it was incredibly moving to see the descendants of heroic resistants celebrate an American writer who helped them remember.

The French translation is published by Le Seuil

The story of the Boulloche  is fascinating. Raised in the 16 th arrondissement of Paris, in a traditional family, three of the four children chose to enter the Resistance to the Nazis at an early age. They all survived. The eldest brother Robert and the parents who were pro Pétain, were arrested by the Germans and died.

The story told by Charles Kaiser reads like a thriller set in the streets of Paris and gives us a first hand account of what it was like to be 18 in 1942. He was lucky enough to talk extensively with Christiane Boulloche-Audibert who sadly died last year and had written a diary about her sister Jacqueline and her brother André’s adventures. It is great history seen through the daily life of very exceptional citizens.

If you have not read the book yet, order it. It is a lovely read. (In English at The Other Press and in French at Le Seuil)