Charlotte

David Foenkinos, Sam Taylor

• Publisher: Canongate Books
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781782117940
• eBook ISBN: 9781782117957
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literature General
• Index: Literature

Charlotte Salomon is born into a family stricken by suicide and a country at war. But there is something exceptional about her - she has a gift, a talent for painting. And she has a great love, for a brilliant, eccentric musician. But just as she is coming into her own as an artist, death is coming to control her country. The Nazis have come to power and, as a Jew in Berlin, Charlotte's life is narrowing, and she knows every second is precious.

Inspiring, unflinching, terrible and hopeful, Charlotte is the heartbreaking true story of a life filled with curiosity, animated by genius and cut short by hatred.

Part One

1

Charlotte learned to read her name on a gravestone.

So she wasn’t the first Charlotte.

Before her, there had been her aunt, her mother’s sister.

The two sisters were very close, until one evening in November 1913.

Franziska and Charlotte sing together, dance and laugh together.

But never to excess.

There is always a reserve to their displays of happiness.

Perhaps this is linked to their father’s personality.

An intellectual, strict and unyielding, with an interest in art and antiques.

For him, nothing could be more fascinating than a handful of Roman dust.

Their mother is gentler.

But it is a gentleness tinged with sorrow.

Her life has been a series of tragedies.

But more on that later.

For now, let’s talk about Charlotte.

The first Charlotte.

She is beautiful, with long dark hair like a promise.

It all begins with the slowness.

Little by little, she does everything more slowly: eating, walking, reading.

Something inside her is slowing down.

Her body, I imagine, being infiltrated by melancholy.

The kind of melancholy that devastates, that never goes away.

Happiness becomes an island in the past, unreachable.

But nobody notices the arrival of this slowness in Charlotte.

It is insidious.

People compare the two sisters.

One simply smiles more than the other.

At most, someone might remark the occasional daydream that goes on too long.

But night is taking over her.

The night she must wait for, so that it can be her last.

It is such a cold November night.

While everyone else is sleeping, Charlotte gets out of bed.

She gathers a few belongings, as if she’s going on a trip.

The city seems at a standstill, frozen in this early winter.

Charlotte has just turned eighteen.

She walks quickly toward her destination.

A bridge.

A bridge she loves.

The secret locus of her darkness.

She has known for a long time that it will be the last bridge.

In the black night, unseen, she jumps.

Without the slightest hesitation.

She falls into the icy water, her death an ordeal.

Her body is found early the next morning, washed up on a riverbank.

Completely blue in places.

Her parents and her sister are woken by the news.

The father is paralyzed, utterly silent.

The sister weeps.

The mother howls with pain.

The next day’s newspapers run stories about this girl.

Who took her own life without any explanation.

And perhaps that is the ultimate outrage.

Violence added to violence.

Why?

Her sister considers this suicide an affront to their closeness.

Mostly, she feels responsible.

She never saw, never understood that slowness.

Now she moves forward, with guilt in her heart.

2

The parents and the sister do not attend the funeral.

Devastated, they shut themselves away.

They probably feel a little ashamed too.

They flee the eyes of others.

A few months pass like this.

In the impossibility of taking part in the world.

A long period of silence.

To speak is to risk mentioning Charlotte.

She hides in wait behind every word.

Silence is the survivors’ only crutch.

Until the moment when Franziska touches the piano.

She plays something, sings softly.

Her parents move over to her.

Surprised by this manifestation of life.

The country enters the war, and perhaps this is for the best.

Chaos is the perfect backdrop to their pain.

For the first time, the conflict is global.

Sarajevo brings the fall of the old empires.

Millions of men rush to their deaths.

The future is fought over in long tunnels dug in the earth.

Franziska decides to become a nurse.

She wants to heal the wounded, cure the sick, bring the dead back to life.

And to feel useful, of course.

This girl who lives each day with the feeling of having been useless.

Her mother is horrified by this decision.

It gives rise to tensions and arguments.

A war within the war.

But it makes no difference: Franziska signs up.

And finds herself near the danger zone.

Some think her brave.

But she is quite simply no longer afraid of death.

In the heat of battle, she meets Albert Salomon.

He is one of the youngest surgeon...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Epigraph
• Frontmatter of Charlotte
• Contents
• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three
• Part Four
• Part Five
• Part Six
• Part Seven
• Part Eight
• Epilogue
• Promo page for other Canongate titles