Eve Moreau

About the Book

July 1940. Germany has occupied France. Another tale of World War II? Yes, but the story of a remote conflict told as historic fiction. A story of boy meets girl? Of course. But does the boy win the girl as well as the war? Not quite. The civil authority of Royan, France, a seacoast resort at the mouth of the Gironde River, billets two German officers in the home of schoolteacher Eve Moreau. The German Major Werner Essner and Lieutenant Conrad Zolling expect to be accorded the full privileges of the victorious army but they find their French logeuse to be intractable. Major Essner invites his Kommandant, the pompous Admiral Heinrich, to visit his - Essner’s - well-appointed quarters and savor the excellent French cuisine of Fanny Gaillard, Eve’s cook, housekeeper and confidant. A disturbance on the street marks the arrival of Eve’s son, Jean-Claude, reaching home at last from serving in the army of the defeated French. Jean-Claude tells Eve that he escaped a German prison train and has no papers. The conniving Admiral Heinrich gets wind of the situation and promises Eve that her son will be spared a prison term, or even death, if she will move to his villa as hostess and Fanny will come as cook. Eve remains French throughout the occupation yet finds herself becoming more involved with people whose ties are German. She emerges reluctantly from the role of an ordinary bourgeoise to perform a significant function that brings the book to a surprising ending.

About the Author

Dwight Fairbanks is a retired educator, volunteer, and part-time author. Now living in Eugene, Oregon, he holds degrees in general agriculture, communications and education administration. The novel, Eve Moreau, his first to be published, relates the experiences of the fictional Eve during the occupation of France by Germany in World War II. His writing of the novel began as a biography of his aunt, Cécile Midas, who lived through the German occupation of Royan, France, the setting for the novel. Not having enough material for a meaningful biography, he created work of fiction. Eve Moreau, therefore, has become Cécile’s alter ego , and the author has used his memories of summers spent in Royan as a child and, later,as an army officer in northern Europe and Berlin during and immediately after the war.