Hotel Exile

Hotel Exile is an extraordinary account of a Parisian institution which became a stage set for the terror, tension and triumph of the Second World War. Its staff and guests are thrilling players in an utterly compelling account that sheds important new light on a seemingly familiar episode of modern history

Richard Ovenden

Rogoyska proves such a fresh, astute and unaffected writer that there’s not a dull page, so vividly is the drama of it all communicated… A hauntingly vivid account

Rupert Christiansen, Literary Review

[An] exceptional work of non-fiction – you couldn’t just call it a history book, it’s more than that … Rogoyska captures the historical moment with a rare combination of urgency and empathy … [She] has trawled memoirs from hotel staff and ex-officers, unearthing stories that are peculiarly resonant … This is a scintillatingly good book. I think it will win prizes – not least because it is subtly experimental … It slips in and out of the present tense like a contemporary novel … It feels thrillingly immersive. In fact, I’ve rarely felt such a sense of the historical moment. Or indeed the present moment. Because if ever a book were about now as well as then, it’s this one.

James McConnachie, The Sunday Times

Impressive and original... vivid and thoroughly researched... a masterclass

Patrick Marnham, Spectator

A devastating and ­memorable account of lives thrown into upheaval by Nazism

Irish Independent

Beautifully written ... this is a compelling book full of lessons we may not wish to hear

Country Life

Poignant and richly layered

History of War magazine

Powerful

Mail on Sunday

Riveting – and heartbreaking

The Economist

Transformed from hotel to hospital, the Lutetia... and the dramas it witnessed are brought here to vivid, searing life

The Tablet

Intricate... moving

Irish Times

A novelist herself, Rogoyska adopts a vivid, impressionistic approach to the stories of these exiles... her sympathy with the plight of these persecuted people... shines from every page

BBC History

A gripping account of one institution in extraordinary times

Evening Standard

Outstanding ... Rogoyska's book soars to great heights

Kathryn Hughes, Guardian

Riveting, spotlighting moments of both resistance and suffering … It’s a striking immersion into the trauma caused by the Nazi machine

Publishers Weekly

Poignant and painful, Hotel Exile takes the vehicle of a hotel as a means of telling the story of exile. Set in the middle of Paris, before, during and after the Second World War, it reveals a part of this period of history that is often left unexplored

Thangam Debbonaire, Chair of Judges for Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction

Extraordinary ... An almost cinematic account that will, for many readers, connect figures and episodes in a new way

Mark Mazower, Financial Times

Compelling … Jane Rogoyska’s eloquent history brings this period vividly to life

Ben Hutchinson, TLS