Author Roseanna M. White has written many intriguing historical novels that feature secrets and espionage, and The Collector of Burned Books is no exception. Set over the course of World War II, Corinne, a literature professor, is tasked with hiding secrets in a Paris library. But as the German occupation of France continues and a soldier starts to take an interest in the books Corrine is desperate to hide, she knows she’ll need to protect the books—and the secrets within—at all costs.
In this Q and A with Roseanna, she explains what inspired the story and dives into the themes of the book, which are still relevant to readers today.
If you want to learn more about Roseanna’s novel, start reading the first chapter of The Collector of Burned Books, or find your own copy in softcover, e-book, or audiobook at a retailer near you.
What inspired this story?
A couple years ago, I read a nonfiction book called When Books Went to War, all about the role of books and the publishing industry during World War II. In that book was this brief, passing mention of a place in Paris called the Library of Burned Books—it was started by German expat writers who were forced from their homeland in 1933 because of their heritage or political ideas, but it was also sponsored by writers from around the world similarly censored and banned in Germany, like H. G. Wells.
As soon as I read about this place, I was intrigued. An institution by the same name soon followed in New York, but it was the Paris one that really intrigued me . . . because it was the Paris one, the original, that was presented to the Nazis on a metaphorical golden platter the very day they took Paris in 1940. What happened to it? That’s still a mystery. The author of When Books Went to War said the Germans kept it “under lock and key” for the duration of the war. And that got me thinking.
Why would they simply protect it instead of immediately dismantling it? What sort of person would have been put in charge of it? How would they have been impacted by the verboten books on those shelves? And, of course . . . what if that “library protector” had secrets of his own?
It took me a while to figure out which story I wanted to tell, but once I realized that I wanted my focus to be, not on what the library was before the occupation, but what happened to it during, the pieces all came together.
What messages or themes do you focus on in this book?
As one might expect from the title and location, censorship and book banning is a big subject in the book . . . but I try to dig a little deeper into it and explore why our human instinct is to snuff out what we disagree with. Why we go from I don’t like that idea to That idea is dangerous to That idea must be eliminated.
Freedom, however, is irrevocably linked to ideas and the people who put them down on paper. A people that reject the responsibility of sifting through ideas on their own is a people who will soon only think what they’re told to think. But the real kicker here is that it wasn’t the Nazi party that decided to dictate to the people what they could read or not. It was the people, the university students, who demanded “dangerous” or “unfitting” or “disgraceful” books be removed that led to the book burnings now decried as one of the worst offenses to freedom.
Yet if we truly take a look at ourselves, our communities, our culture . . . are we so different? Are we willing to accept the challenge given in this story to read, not just what we like, but what we don’t? To read things we don’t agree with, not for the sake of arguing, but for the sake of understanding? To read not to condemn but to grow? I don’t know about you, but that’s something I need to work on!
What do you hope that readers learn from The Collector of Burned Books?
My deepest prayer is that as readers get to know Corinne and Christian, they’ll not just get swept up in romance or espionage or the tension of living a double life under an oppressive regime, but that we’ll all pause to remember that words, spoken but especially written, are so, so powerful. The words we consume become our thoughts, our thoughts become our actions, and our actions become our legacy. Are we giving those words the care they deserve?
Do you have any future writing projects planned?
Always! Right now I’m working on another book set in France during the occupation, this one focusing on a fictionalized version of the amazing woman who led France’s first and biggest spy network during the war, Alliance. It will release in summer 2026 and has my mind abuzz with adventure and intrigue!
Paris, 1940. Ever since the Nazi Party began burning books, German writers exiled for their opinions or heritage have been taking up residence in Paris. There they opened a library meant to celebrate the freedom of ideas and gathered every book on the banned list . . . and even incognito versions of the forbidden books that were smuggled back into Germany.
For the last six years, Corinne Bastien has been reading those books and making that library a second home. But when the German army takes possession of Paris, she loses access to the library and all the secrets she’d hidden there. Secrets the Allies will need if they have any hope of liberating the city she calls home.
Christian Bauer may be German, but he never wanted anything to do with the Nazi Party—he is a professor, one who’s done his best to protect his family as well as the books that were a threat to Nazi ideals. But when Goebbels sends him to Paris to handle the “relocation” of France’s libraries, he’s forced into an army uniform and given a rank he doesn’t want. In Paris, he tries to protect whoever and whatever he can from the madness of the Party and preserve the ideas that Germans will need again when that madness is over, and maybe find a lost piece of his heart.
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award–winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books . . . to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary. You can learn more about her and her stories at RoseannaMWhite.com.
