The Paris Architect

The novel is set in German Occupied Paris in 1942. The central character is Lucien Bernard,a talented young architect, who is enlisted by a rich Frenchman to build an ammunitions factory for the Nazis. Under that guise he is contracted to design clever secret hiding places to hide Jews being smuggled out of France. Lucien was raised in an anti semetic household and in the beginning doesn't care about what happens to Jews.The novel is a page turner and there is tension as the situation develops and spaces invisible are created in big empty apartments as temporary hiding places. One hiding place fails and then it becomes a more personal quest for Lucien to outwit the Gestapo. He ends up on a different moral road than the one he started on. Lucien becomes more empathic by the end of the novel and develops courage  in contrast to the atrocities being committed around him.I recommend this novel and one that I would re read.