Villa Air-Bel

'Rosemary Sullivan knows that you can understand nothing about a place without listening to individual people and their stories' -- Margaret Atwood 'Rosemary Sullivan's Villa Air-Bel is a marvellous addition to the surging literature on occupied France. Sullivan writes ... as a dramatist. Her scene-by-scene evocation of life at the house reads like an updated Chekhov comedy laced with horror' -- Jackie Wullschlager, Financial Times 'Sullivan brilliantly interweaves personal histories with terrifying tales about flight over mountains to Spain or Switzerland and by sea to Casablanca and Martinique, and with stories of forging papers, bribery, love and betrayal' -- Sarah Curtis, The Sunday Times 'Part history, part adventure story! the product of much devoted research and wide reading. Interesting, important, and her telling! gripping. Sullivan's book is full of interest, of good stories, of nice character sketches. She handles the huge cast she has assembled deftly, and her enthusiasm is obvious' -- Allan Massie, Literary Review 'This is a magnificent, complex narrative of courage, folly and complacency.' -- Jane Stevenson, Daily Telegraph, who, as the subtitle read, was 'captivated by the story of a Harvard classical scholar who rescued Europe's intellectuals from the Nazis' -- Jane Stevenson, Daily Telegraph 'With tremendous suspense and emotional pull, Sullivan recounts the little-known story of Varian Fry' -- Vogue '[A] fascinating history' -- Publishing News 'Beautifully written in a style that is novelistic, Villa Air-Bel brings to life the story of this rescue through experiences of a community of artists who spent time in the Villa Air-Bel chateau !The book is interesting and evocative and provides nuances and texture to one of the untold stories of rescue during the Holocaust' -- Jewish Book World 'A complex tale showing how hope and courage flourish, even in the toxic soil of totalitarianism' -- Kirkus '!a true tale full of intrigue, danger, crazed love, death and survival !The debt of modern culture to the motley crowd at the Villa Air-Bel is truly incalculable' -- Bookpage