The Lantern Library of Sainte-Claire

Synopsis

In the heart of Nazi-occupied France, the village of Sainte-Claire finds solace in the most unexpected of places: the hushed whispers of shared stories. Elise Moreau, a quiet yet determined traveling librarian, risks everything as she bikes from farm to farmhouse, her saddlebags laden with banned books. Alongside her are Madame Dubois, a bookbinder's widow who repairs salvaged volumes and secretly codes messages into their bindings; Monsieur Laurent, a schoolteacher forced to teach in secret; Jean-Luc, a rebellious teen who becomes a courier for the Resistance; and Sophie Martin, the bookstore owner's daughter who preserves the last remaining volumes from her destroyed bookstore in a hidden cellar. Together, they form the Lantern Library, a clandestine book club that meets in candlelit basements and barns, sharing literature as an act of defiance and a source of hope. As the Lantern Library grows, so does its role in the French Resistance. Classic novels become the basis for a complex code system, and a pressed flower hidden within a book's spine signals a coded message. The members of the Lantern Library must evade detection by the occupying German forces while continuing to provide solace and courage through literature, all while escalating their efforts to actively resist the occupation by using books to smuggle messages and aid the French Resistance. Through shared stories and acts of bravery, the villagers of Sainte-Claire discover the power of literature to unite, inspire, and ultimately, to resist.