Love in the Tempest of History: A French Resistance Story FROM THE PUBLISHER
In 1966, a young student doing research in the National Library of France was confronted by an elderly gentleman who had overheard her name. Despite her polite denials, he insisted that she must be the daughter of the Resistance heroes Jacques and Lotka de Prévaux. Curious about the strange episode, Aude Yung-de Prévaux recounted the story to her mother. To Aude's amazement, her mother confirmed the old man's account and, shockingly, admitted she was actually Aude's aunt. Thus began an odyssey of discovery that uncovered not only Aude Yung-de Prévaux's own hidden history, but also that of her tragic parents and their doomed love — one of the most haunting stories of the Second World War.
Using the tattered letters and military records she found in the trunks containing her father's belongings — now reclaimed from a godfather living in Morocco — as well as personal interviews, Yung-de Prévaux has reconstructed the lives of the parents she never knew. From the shadows of the chaotic war years emerges her real father, brother to the one she had known. Jacques Trolley de Prévaux was a brilliant and handsome vice admiral with a gift for diplomacy — and a penchant for literature, bohemian company, and opium. A slave to his appetites, as well as to his high ideals, he suffered all his life from contradictory impulses — loyalty to the navy, now controlled by Vichy, and loyalty to an independent France; respect for tradition and scorn for society's suffocating rules; dedication to family and a thirst for adventure; duty to his wife and passion for his soul mate. From the murkiness of a Polish shtetl and the seething throngs of turn-of-the-century New York, with all the prejudices of the Old World and the sufferings of the New, emerged the true image of Aude's mother, Charlotte Leitner, known to everyone as Lotka. A beautiful American-born Polish Jew who worked as a fashion model in Paris, this headstrong and fiery woman refused to stay any course not of her own choosing. Across class, social, and religious lines she pursued her love, and she stole his heart with no regard for the cost. To the horror of his staunchly Catholic haute-bourgeois family and her insecure and modest Jewish parents, these lovers sloughed off their former selves, married, and forged a new life. With boundless faith that their love would overcome all obstacles, they set out to create their own world — until the horrors of war shattered their reality.
And yet chaos would bring out their most heroic selves — and cause their ultimate destruction. They pledged themselves to the service of their country in its darkest hour, and the bravery they demonstrated as a couple made them two of the most significant Resistance fighters in the south of France. But for all their bravery, nothing would redeem them to Jacques' indignant family, not even the tragic climax when, betrayed days before the Allies liberated their prison, they were executed on the orders of Klaus Barbie in August 1944 — making an orphan of the author, their little girl. This extraordinary story, revealed as a result of one woman's quest to discover her past, recaptures a lost chapter in the history of a nation at war and returns to the pantheon two of its most romantic heroes.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Spies for the French Resistance during WWII, Jacques and Lotka de Pr vaux were awarded seven medals and honors for their efforts, which included providing intelligence that led to the Normandy Invasion. They were executed by the Nazis when their daughter, the author, was an infant. She was raised by a paternal uncle and aunt, and the true identity of her parents was kept from her. Then, in 1966, when Yung-de Pr vaux was 23, an elderly man in the Biblioth que Nationale in Paris saw her writing her name down and blurted out her family history. And what a history: Jacques descended from aristocrats and from a long line of Catholics who counted Joan of Arc's older brother as a forebear. Lotka was a stunning Polish Jew who came to Paris to study fashion and captured Jacques's heart. Even before he'd begun divorce proceedings against his first wife, Jacques was writing Lotka letters brimming with passion. Unfortunately, that's about all the passion readers are likely to find in these pages. A journalist, Yung-de Pr vaux tells her parents' story with a surprising professional detachment. (Writing about her christening, she refers to herself as "little Aude de Pr vaux.") There are lots of details about the couple's history and spy work and ships (Jacques was a naval officer), but for a book with "love" and "tempest" in the title, this one is frustratingly devoid of emotion. (Apr.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
Journalist Yung-de Pr vaux, a frequent contributor to French and Swiss publications, lovingly reconstructs the lives of her parents, forgotten French Resistance heroes Jacques and Lotka de Pr vaux. Because their executions occurred while she was still an infant, she never learned the true story of her origin until a chance encounter when she was 23 and a student in Paris. Determined to rescue them from oblivion and satisfy her own quest for self-knowledge, she spent years investigating their lives. Jacques, a French naval officer, scandalized his family by divorcing his wife of many years and marrying a Polish-Jewish emigrant 20 years his junior. The spirited, beautiful Lotka, a model, couturier, and beautician, had been his longtime mistress, but civil and naval obstacles delayed their marriage until early in the war. Soon their personal passion became a shared political one, and both assumed roles in the Resistance, where they would ultimately meet their deaths. Raised by her paternal aunt, the author was shielded from the circumstances of her birth for both personal and political reasons. While this is primarily a personal story lacking historical analysis, the beautifully crafted and fascinating romance does provide some insights into Resistance activities. Recommended for general readers interested in World War II. Marie Marmo Mullaney, Caldwell Coll., NJ Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
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