No Place To Lay One's Head - Softcover

A Telegraph and Spectator Book of the Year

'Gripping' -- Telegraph, Books of the Year

'Poignant love letter to literature' -- Spectator, Books of the Year

'An astonishing memoir... as gripping as any thriller... stark and chilling... we owe [Frenkel] a huge debt of gratitude. In sharing her bitter taste of bitter history, she has shown us the worst of humanity - but also the best' -- Sunday Times

'This remarkable survivor's memoir - a French equivalent to the anonymous A Woman in Berlin, and a non-fiction counterpoint, as it were, to Némirovsky's Suite Française... Terribly moving and terribly haunting... It's a surprisingly measured book about one woman's immeasurable sorrow that everyone should hold in their hands' -- Nicholas Shakespeare, Daily Telegraph (five stars)

'A vital addition to these eyewitness accounts [Anne Frank and Suite Française]... an appealing style, captured in an assured translation by Stephanie Smee. There is a wild beauty to the prose... sharply specific... unbearably sad' --Financial Times

'A remarkable lost-then-found account that appears in English for the first time... It stands as both an illuminating depiction of wartime France and a gripping and affecting personal account of endurance and defiance.. the reader roots for [Frenkel] every step of the way' -- Economist

This account is particularly vital... riveting... Frenkel's portrait of a people she loved is a complex and unsettling view of humanity, in all its shifting shades' -- Spectator

Tells of the writer's incredible escape from the Nazis' -- ELLE

'An important, shocking and haunting book - fragmentary, disturbing and dark, yet delicately and lightly written' -- The Lady (five stars)

'Just when it seems there is nothing else to be said on this subject, here is a book of compelling freshness' -- Literary Review

A poignant love letter to literature, freedom and shared humanity, carrying its message of solace and encouragement both in and on its pages' --History Today

'A lost classic of mysterious provenance, Frenkel's tale and prose is utterly compelling, at once painful and exquisite' -- Philippe Sands, author of East West Street

'Terribly moving and terribly haunting - Frenkel has the mournful presence of a ghost; even as she breathes on her mirror into Occupied France, she is being made to vanish before our eyes' -- Nicholas Shakespeare, author of Priscilla, The Hidden Life of an Englishwoman in Wartime France

'Frenkel writes with a novelist's observing eye: her cool detachment in the heat of persecution and attempted flight brings both the bureaucratic and human cruelty of life under Nazi occupation into startling relief. Every dangerous detail, every helping hand is luminously present. This is a memoir that has the terrible precarity of lived experience. It's the real thing. I cried and still couldn't put it down' -- Lisa Appignanesi, author of Losing the Dead

'A bitter, beautiful and important book' -- Robert Fisk

'Françoise Frenkel's memoir offers a reminder never to disdain jumble' -- Jewish Chronicle

Brimming with humanity... this curious, gripping, delicate yet commanding memoir... a voice that looks across cultures and faiths, races and historical moments, uniting all that is noblest into a quiet statement of perseverance, endurance, resilience' -- Bookanista

'The story told with such clarity, thanks to the seamless and skilful translation by Stephanie Smee, becomes a breathless account of all the people who take her in and help her survive in the darkest times' -- The Times of Israel

'A fascinating personal account... timely given our current political situation... a lesson in the importance of retaining our humanity, whatever indoctrination is being disseminated on behalf of self-serving politicians' -- Never Imitate (blog)

'I have no hesitation in saying it will remain high on my list for the rest of the year... I raced through the book in a couple of sessions - it's extremely moving and as enthralling as a thriller, and should undoubtedly become a classic' -- Shiny New Books (blog)

'Harrowing and beautifully written, it is both an astonishing historical account of surviving the horrors of the Second World War and a timeless story about the importance of empathy and resilience in the most difficult times'--Pendora Magazine

'Moving, heartbreaking and impactful' -- Umut Reviews (blog)

'A moving novel about one woman's escape from persecution and humanity's ability to remain generous in the most brutal time - a CUB must-read!' -- CUB Magazine

'An important and haunting book - fragmentary, disturbing and dark, yet delicately and lightly written' --The Lady Magazine

In 1921, Francoise Frenkel - a Jewish woman from Poland - opens her first bookshop in Berlin. It is a dream come true. The dream lasts nearly two decades. Then suddenly, it ends. It ends after police confiscations and the Night of Broken Glass, as Jewish shops and businesses are smashed to pieces. It ends when no one protests. So Francoise flees to France, just weeks before war breaks out. In Paris, on the wireless and in the newspapers, horror has made itself at home. When the city is bombed, Francoise seeks refuge in Avignon, then Nice. She fears she may never see her family again. Nice is awash with refugees and terrible suffering; children are torn from their parents; mothers throw themselves under buses. Horrified by what she sees, Francoise goes into hiding. She survives only because strangers risk their lives to protect her. Set against the romantic landscapes of Southern France, No Place to Lay One's Head is a heartbreaking tale of human cruelty and unending kindness; of a woman whose lust for life refuses to leave her, even in her darkest hours.