Paris, 7 A. M.

"A sweeping and stunning novel about what happened to the poet Elizabeth Bishop during three life-changing weeks she spent in Paris amidst the imminent threat of World War II. June 1937. Elizabeth Bishop, still only a young woman and not yet one of the most influential poets of the twentieth century, arrives in Paris with her college roommate. They are in search of an escape, and inspiration, far from the protective world of Vassar College where they are expected to find an impressive husband, a quiet life, and act accordingly. But the world is changing, and as they arrive in the City of Light, the larger veil of fascism and occupation are looming large. In Paris, they meet a community of upper crust ex-patriates, who not only bring them along on a life-changing adventure, but also into an underground world of rebellion that will alter the course of their lives forever. Paris 7 A.M. imagines 1937—the only year Bishop, a meticulous keeper of journals, didn't chronicle—in vivid detail and brings us from Paris to Normandy where Bishop becomes involved with a group saving Jewish orphans and delivering them to convents where they will be baptized as Catholics and saved from the looming horror their parents will face."—Publisher.

Audience
adult
Length
medium · 352 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Paris, 7 A. M.? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Paris, 7 A. M.. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Emily Dickinson: Singular Poet Shares american women poets, american poets, women
  2. Angela the upside down girl, and other domestic travels Shares american women poets, american poets, biography
  3. Poet Warrior Shares american women poets, american poets, biography
  4. Emily Dickinson Shares american women poets, american poets, writers

“If you want more of the same (historical fiction about friendship), start with these.”

  1. Roman Elegy
  2. The Postmistress of Paris
  3. The Paris Seamstress
  4. All the flowers in Paris

“If it was the american women poets that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. The Spiral of Memory: Interviews (Poets on Poetry)
  2. A fire is burning, it is in me
  3. Emma Lazarus in Her World: Life and Letters
  4. Orphic Paris

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Crossing on the Paris
  2. Memories of Jewish Life: From Italy to Jerusalem, 1918-1960
  3. The Language of Threads
  4. Enemies of the Heart