I found this novel to be better researched than The Last Bookshop in London, and as a book lover and someone who works in a public library, this had a lot to draw me in.

Zofia has had a comfortable life in Warsaw until the Nazis occupy the city.  Her brother leaves to fight, and with a Jewish best friend she knows life will not be the same again.

Working in the public library, it's against everything she believes in to destroy the books she's ordered to, so she starts to smuggle them out and hide them, or secretly loan them to trusted regulars.

This side of WWII history was not something I'd really thought about, and though I knew a little about how cities like Leningrad and Warsaw suffered under siege I still learned something new.

Of course we had the obligatory - if unnecessary - romance, but for all that this was an enjoyable book by an author who obviously cares about passing knowledge onto future generations, and the power of the written word.