The Book of Lost Names

With her new identity secure, Eva focuses her attention on freeing her father. She forges new travel documents for them both, ignoring Mamusia’s constant murmuring about how Eva does not “owe these people anything” (96). Eva boards a train that morning for Paris, and everything goes well until she is stopped by a German officer and asked for her papers.

Although the papers pass muster, the German does not believe her due to her Jewish appearance. He continues to demand other paperwork to prove her identity, and Eva is almost out of responses when the young man from the church library suddenly appears and pretends to be her husband. His papers list his name as Rémy Charpentier, the same last name as her false identity, and he has brought with him numerous trivial documents for “Marie Charpentier.” This quells the German’s concern, though he still remains suspicious. Rémy treats the situation as a playful game amid Eva’s criticism about his behavior as her “husband,” and when the German officer approaches Eva again, Rémy locks her in a passionate kiss until he passes.

After arriving in a darker and more foreboding Paris than the one she left four days prior, Eva angrily questions Rémy’s decision to act as her husband, confident that she could have handled the German officer on her own.