The Paris Architect: A Novel

7. Who were your favorite characters in the book?

Aside from Lucien, the architect, it would be Father Jacques. It’s a little known fact that a lot of Catholic priests in France were arrested and deported for helping Jews, especially children. I wanted to portray a really brave person committed to helping his fellow man. The scene with Father Jacques being interrogated by the Gestapo colonel is probably my favorite. He isn’t scared or intimidated by the Gestapo in the least and stands up to them. He knows he’s done the right thing by helping the children and isn’t afraid to die for it.





Acknowledgments A successful author once gave me a very good piece of advice. He said that one of the most important things in writing fiction is that you need to find someone who absolutely believes in your novel. He was right. And I was lucky enough to find two such special people. The first person was my literary agent, Susan Ginsburg of Writers House. Her experience and guidance were of immense help to me. She gave me confidence and encouragement during a very dark period in my life. I’ll always remember how she stood by me. The second person was Shana Drehs, editorial manager of Sourcebooks Landmark, who believed in an architect who was a first-time novelist. Her enthusiasm about the book gave me great confidence, and her editorial skills made my novel sharper and better.

I thank both of these people for believing in my work.

Charles Belfoure Westminster, MD





About the Author An architect by profession, Charles Belfoure has published several architectural histories, two of which have won awards from the Maryland Historical Trust. He was also given grants by the Graham Foundation and the James Marston Fitch Foundation for architectural research. A graduate of the Pratt Institute and Columbia University, he taught at Pratt as well as at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. His area of specialty is historic preservation, and he writes a blog on historic preservation and architecture: www.thewickedarchitect.com. He has been a freelance writer for the Baltimore Sun and the New York Times.