Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Race For Paris
    The Race For Paris
    The Race For Paris
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Race For Paris

    Written by Meg Waite Clayton

    Narrated by Jennifer Ikeda

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Normandy, 1944. To cover the fighting in France, Jane, a reporter for the Nashville Banner, and Liv, an Associated Press photographer, have already had to endure enormous danger and frustrating obstacles - including strict military regulations limited what women correspondents can do. Even so, Liv wants more. Encouraged by her husband, the editor of a New York newspaper, she's determined to be the first photographer to reach Paris with the Allies, and capture its freedom from the Nazis. However, her Commanding Officer has other ideas about the role of women in the press corps. To fulfill her ambitions, Liv must go AWOL. She persuades Jane to join her, and the two women find a guardian angel in Fletcher, a British military photographer who reluctantly agrees to escort them. As they race for Paris across the perilous French countryside, Liv, Jane, and Fletcher forge an indelible emotional bond that will transform them and reverberate long after the war is over. Based on daring, real-life female reporters on the front lines of history like Margaret Bourke-White, Lee Miller, and Martha Gellhorn - and with cameos by other famous faces of the time - The Race for Paris is an absorbing, atmospheric saga full of drama, adventure, and passion. Combining riveting storytelling with expert literary craftsmanship and thorough research, Meg Waite Clayton crafts a compelling, resonant read. Meg Waite Clayton is the New York Times bestselling author of four novels: The Four Mrs. Bradwells; The Wednesday Sisters; The Language of Light, and The Wednesday Daughters.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateAug 11, 2015
    ISBN9781490684536
    The Race For Paris
    Author

    Meg Waite Clayton

    Meg Waite Clayton is the New York Times bestselling author of eight novels, including The Postmistress of Paris (a Publisher’s Weekly notable book; HarperCollins, Nov. 30, 2021), the National Jewish Book Award finalist and international bestseller The Last Train to London, the Langum Award honoree The Race for Paris, the Bellwether Prize finalist The Language of Light, and The Wednesday Sisters, an Entertainment Weekly 25 Essential Best Friend Novels of all time. Her novels have been published in 23 languages. She has also written more than 100 essays, opinions, and reviews for major newspapers, magazines, and public radio. She mentors in the OpEd Project, and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and the California bar. megwaiteclayton.com

    More audiobooks from Meg Waite Clayton

    Related to The Race For Paris

    Related audiobooks

    Historical Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Women Of Bletchley Part I: The Bombe Operator

      Jan 24, 2019

      Although it was shrouded in secrecy for decades, the codebreaking work of Bletchley Park is now recognised as an extraordinary wartime achievement. Prodigiously talented cryptanalysts devised various methods to decipher Axis communications. This prod

      11 min read

    • Article

      Life In Wartime: Women Dominate A Quartet Of World War II Novels

      Aug 25, 2021

      The 4 best recent novels set during World War II show the ingenuity of women who put everything on the line to defeat the Nazis.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Best-sellers

      Feb 25, 2018

      Rankings for hard-cover books sold in Southern California, as reported by selected book stores: ___ Fiction 1."The Great Alone," by Kristin Hannah (St. Martin's: $28.99) A family discovers it is in peril after the father, a returning Vietnam War POW,

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Boy Who Drew Auschwitz

      Jan 27, 2021

      The Boy Who Drew Auschwitz
      4 min read

    • Article

      'A Woman Of No Importance' Finally Gets Her Due

      Apr 18, 2019

      Virginia Hall was an American spy who worked for Britain and the U.S. and played a key role in undermining the Nazi occupation of France during World War II. Her story was rarely told — until now.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Drawing On History

      Jun 4, 2019

      Drawing On History
      6 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Feb 2, 2022

      Book Club
      5 min read

    • Article

      Who Were You?

      Jun 9, 2023

      Who Were You?
      2 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Feb 19, 2021

      At a local newspaper in South East London in 1957, journalist Jean Swinney receives a curious letter written to the editor. Gretchen Tilbury – abeautiful, well-to-do woman – claims her 10-year-old daughter is the product of a virgin birth. Gretchen h

      5 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Jason R Jimenez

      Dec 10, 2019

      Can you imagine a world without frogs? Or even less of them? What is the night without a symphony of croaks? I want to ask that to everyone. The post A Year in Reading: Jason R Jimenez appeared first on The Millions.

      6 min read

    • Article

      Innocence Lost

      Feb 5, 2019

      Innocence Lost
      6 min read

    • Article

      5 Minutes With Tara Moss

      Jun 5, 2022

      5 Minutes With Tara Moss
      1 min read

    • Article

      The Woman In The Square

      Feb 26, 2019

      The Woman In The Square
      7 min read

    • Article

      Mary Schmich: When A Chicago Cop Finds A Stash Of Old Letters In The Trash, He's Transported To Chicago During World War II. And Vows To Get The Letters Back To The Family

      Oct 20, 2020

      CHICAGO - One day this summer, in the midst of the pandemic, Eric Wolforth took a walk to the store to buy milk and diapers. He followed his usual route, west along Catalpa Avenue, then a right turn into an alley. A few doors up he spotted piles of j

      9 min read

    • Article

      Tracy Chevalier

      Aug 29, 2019

      Tracy Chevalier
      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Race For Paris

    4/5

    47 ratings7 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Extraordinary! Compelling all the way through. An unusual approach to storytelling that captured characters, settings and history.
    • 4/5
      Based on experiences of real people, this historical fiction pays homage to women news correspondents during WWII. Liv, a talented AP photographer from New York, and Jane, a reporter from Nashville, have joined Allied forces in France to document the last stages of the war. Women are not welcomed or wanted in these roles at the time, and they persevere in the face of many barriers. They want to be among the first to cover the 1944 liberation of Paris, so they head out on their own in the hopes of getting closer to the action. They meet and travel with Fletcher, a British military photographer and friend of Liv’s husband, who tries to protect them without making it too obvious.

      The author does an exceptional job of helping the reader imagine what it must have been like to live in a warzone, where they travel by jeep, survive on military-issue rations, sleep in uncomfortable surroundings, try to keep clean by washing in a helmet, and deal with imminent danger. For example, at one point, they are shown caves where people have been hiding from the Nazis:

      “Within a minute, the world around us was pitch-black and I was creeping uneasily behind Liv, groping for the sides of the cave. They were gritty cold, but anchoring, and slightly less frightening than the smell of the damp stone and the taste of underground air and the quiet crunch of steps that might be ours alone, or might not.”

      Well-selected relevant quotes from real war correspondents open each chapter. It is mostly told in first person from Jane’s point of view. There is a bit of a love triangle among the trio, but it does not overpower the historical story. The history is well-researched, and the writing is direct. The characters are believable, and their camaraderie feels authentic. The plot is based around the trio’s journey and is portrayed as a series of encounters, though a key piece of the story appears to be abandoned at the half-way point. The ending is particularly well-done. It is an inspirational story of strong women risking their lives, overcoming obstacles, and surpassing social stereotypes.
    • 4/5
      The Race For Paris by Meg Waite Clayton borrowed generously from the experiences and memoirs of women journalists and photographers like Martha Gellhorn, Helen Kirkpatrick, and Margaret Bourke-Whitewho disregarded the rules in order to cover World War II from the front. There was a rule that only men journalists could report from the front lines, the women were shunted to hospitals, refugee centers and military headquarters, all well to the rear. This story is about two American female correspondents who go AWOL as they try to document the Allied liberation of Paris. To actually be there when the troops marched in was to record history and would make their careers. Overall, I thought the author did a fine job of blending history and fiction. She certainly gets across the difficulties that women correspondents faced. The Race for Paris is a great blend of drama, adventure and passion as these two foolhardy women along with a British military photographer race through the French countryside toward Paris.I enjoyed The Race For Paris on many levels, but probably most for the history. I thought the characters were a little under-developed for me to fully invest in their storyline, but I would certainly recommend this book to any lovers of WW II history as this is a subject that I haven’t seen addressed before.
    • 5/5
      This was a "two tear" book meaning I shed tears twice while reading it. Excellent story of WWII journalists, in today's world one does not need to predicate with female but during WWII women had to climb mountains to be allowed the opportunity to cover the war.Loved the book and I am inspired to read more about Boufke-White and Gellhorn and their stories.Fascinating and touching story of the war, friendships, and ambition. I would recommend this book to everyone who enjoys gritty historic fiction.
    • 4/5
      Courage is “the ability to do something that frightens one.” [Oxford Dictionaries] In a male-dominated world, Olivia (Liv) Harper and Jane Tyler manage to break into the field of wartime journalism by sheer determination. The two women meet in a French field hospital in June 1944. Jane is a journalist from Nashville; in fact the story is told in her first person account. Liv is a photographer for the AP. They are covering WWII from the perspective of the doctors and nurses dealing with soldiers who have been injured. Not all of the men make it; they cover that too. Some of the injured soldiers are German; they cover that too. They continue to request a transfer to the frontlines in France. They are continually denied. No longer willing to accept ‘no’ from her commanding officer, Liv decides to make a go of it on her own. Jane agrees to go with her. They meet Fletcher Roebuck, a British Military photographer, and against his better judgement, he agrees to travel with and escort the two.Meg Waite Clayton tells us in her ‘Author’s Note’, “Although this is a work of fiction, I’ve striven to make it historically accurate, and to that end have borrowed heavily from the facts of the lives of soldiers, support troops, journalists, and civilians involved in the war, and particularly from the experiences of … pioneering women.” Upon reading The Race for Paris, it is no doubt in my mind of the meticulous research the author put into her work. The chapters are not numbered. Instead, they are headed by the place and date much like a journal. Also at the beginning of each chapter is a quote from actual female journalists from that time. Photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White was quoted as saying, “I learned to appreciate a nice, deep, muddy ditch which I could roll into during shelling … to take a satisfactory bath in my helmet without upsetting it … to live like a gypsy, out of my bed roll, and to sleep almost anywhere.”Jane and Liv were fictional, but their lives compare in a big way to the lives of actual lady journalists and photographers of their day. The first and last chapters were fifty years later, in celebration and commemoration of these women. The rest of the novel is a flashback to their story. I did have a problem with the pacing. The race turned out to be from the perspective of the tortoise and not the hare as there was much ado about small things. Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
    • 5/5
      I thought that this book was phenomenal and highly recommend it for two main reasons. First, it was a fantastic story. The characters were so real and so believable that I felt that I could sit down and talk to them - especially Jane. I found myself reading slower as I got to the end because I didn't want the story to end. Second, way back when I was in school, we were never taught about women who did heroic things during wars and this book was a real eye opener for me. It was based on the real life female journalists and photo journalists who were side by side (or tried to be) with the men during World War II. The two main characters Liv, a photographer, and Jane, a journalist, go AWOL from behind American lines to try to get to Paris for the liberation. They put up with lots of hardship to accomplish what was a major career and personal goal for both of them - to report the stories as they were happening. To sum it all up in two words -- READ IT!
    • 4/5
      News has always been about getting "the scoop." Even now when news is pretty much instantaneous, we will find breaking news alerts or scrolls as each news outlet rushes to be the first to tell us about a new story or new development in something ongoing. In World War II, photographers and journalists couldn't beam their work to the world in the breath of a nanosecond but in a way, that made the desire to be the one to break a story or release the first photographs that much more consuming. Whoever got there first had the chance of immortality through the words and photos that would always define a seminal event for the waiting public. And one of the biggest coups of the war would be documenting the liberation of occupied Paris. Every correspondent and photographer working then knew it and wanted to be the one to file first. Meg Waite Clayton's newest novel, The Race For Paris, a decade in the writing, looks at the push to be the first in Paris not only as journalists but as female journalists who were not supposed to be anywhere near this enormous and significant event.Jane is a "girl reporter" for a Nashville paper who has not been able to get any closer to the front in France than a field hospital. She is fairly resigned to her out-of-immediate-action post and the refusal of the CO to authorize her any further forward until Olivia James Harper arrives in camp. Liv is an AP photographer whose husband runs the New York Daily Press. She is not content to stay behind the action even though she and Jane file some emotionally wrenching stories and photos from the hospital that garner them acclaim from Eleanor Roosevelt herself. Citing other brave female journalists and photographers defying orders, Liv and Jane go AWOL, determined to make their way to the front and to join the race to Paris. Happening across a photographer named Fletcher who Liv knows thanks to his connection to her husband and who is working for British Intelligence, the three join forces as they slowly cross the destroyed and still contested French countryside.With MPs after them, the trio weaves around, taking photographs and writing stories, documenting the slow drive toward the city. They encounter horror, carnage, and gunfire. They, like the troops, must wait for the clouds to clear so the planes can fly. They are slowed by the lack of gasoline just as the rest of the convoy heading to Paris is. They camp out in barns and the woods, exposed to the elements or in danger of bombing. They take risks and defy convention for the profession that drives them. In short, they endure all the things that the powers that be think to be beyond the capabilities and sensibilities of women. Both Liv and Jane slowly reveal pieces of their pasts, their personalities, and the things that drive them as they alternately rush onward and wait impatiently, determined not to be left behind.The narrative is framed by a 1994 exhibit showcasing Liv's wartime photos and celebrating the release of a book collecting those images. A simple question about the dedication of the book pushes the narrative back into the past when those photos were being taken. Liv's character is a whirlwind of action and while Jane often comes across as the trusty sidekick, it is her character narrating the majority of the story, capturing them thumbing their noses at the professional road blocks thrown in their way, documenting their growing friendship and the different kinds of muddled, hopeless love that springs up in the trio, crafting the story of their push to Paris and beyond. Although Fletcher narrates some as well, his character is seemingly less driven, less ambitious, and less knowable than the women's. The narrative tension waxes and wanes with the forward movement of the troops interspersed by the long periods of waiting for action, just as in any actual war. But even a slackening of the tension doesn't keep the reader from turning the pages, wanting to know more about these women, who were inspired by a compilation of real women correspondents and photographers of the times. The book is thoroughly researched and well written with visually evocative passages painting the scene very clearly in the reader's mind's eye. It is a fascinating look at women who dared, who excelled at their chosen professions despite the socially designed obstructions thrown up at them. And it is a different view of the war, through the eyes of those covering it, the way that their reports shaped public morale, and what was ultimately covered and what was hidden. A quick and gripping tale, the reader will not necessarily be surprised by the climax but the pleasure really is in the getting there. Fans of WWII fiction and fans of well written, unusual historical fiction should definitely include this on their reading lists.