Hotel Exile connects the Paris hotel’s émigrés, wartime occupiers and returning deportees. The US edition appeared July 7; an October 15 review supplied the new discovery.
The histories of grand buildings can become impersonal. The scenes described in the reviews give this one a different texture: disrupted routines, unsettling encounters, and survivors unable to find comfort even in a bed.
Jethro K. Lieberman praises the episodic writing while noting the looseness of its connections. This is a reading selection based on published reviews and the author’s account.