Barbara Josselsohn

An abandoned infant with an ominous note pinned to her blanket; an American schoolteacher with a past she cannot reveal; a tiny town in the French mountainside with a dangerous plan; and an officer who suspects something might be amiss…

It’s my pleasure to introduce you to… THE SECRET ORPHANAGE! Today is launch day, and I’m so excited to share some insights about the book with you!

As you may know, my novel was inspired by a tiny French village known as Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, which helped save more than 3,000 Jewish people, mostly children, from the Nazis. When I first stumbled upon this town, I was fascinated that an entire community worked together, despite the great personal risk, to protect others. It would have been so much easier for the villagers to turn the other cheek! And the truth is, if any individual had changed their minds – if fear had caused them to turn in their neighbors – the whole endeavor would have failed. Like you, I’m sure, I know how hard it is to get a small group of people to agree on anything! What inspired these villagers to tame their terror and carry on with the ruse to fool the Nazis, month after month after endless month?

I’m not sure if there is a clear answer – but I did learn a lot from the book THE PLATEAU by Maggie Paxson. An anthropologist, Paxson is a distant relative of Daniel Trocmé, one of the leaders who led the secret effort in Le Chambon in the 1940s. Paxson revisits Le Chambon decades after the war to try to define the “secret sauce” that can inspire people to fight for peace. It’s a fascinating and moving read about how and why people come together for good. It made me look at my own communities – my neighborhood, my town, my writing community, and more – in a new way.

But back to the book! I’m so grateful to my publisher, Bookouture for the wonderful cover, expert editing, and fabulous marketing support that has allowed me to share my fictional take on people tested to their very core. And your “guide” for this story is a fictional character named Rachel – a small-town librarian in 2018 who seeks to understand the connection among her grandfather, a fictional French town, and an old children’s book with a mysterious dedication that may be tied to her mother, whom she lost years ago.

I really hope you find all of this very intriguing – and if so, you can order the book online or from your favorite bookseller.   And don’t forget to reach out to me once you’ve read it to let me know what you think. I’d love to hear from you!