Book Title: THE SECRET ORPHANAGE
Character Name: Celina Cassin
How would you describe your family or your childhood?
I had a very privileged upbringing in a suburb of Baltimore, in the U.S. I was born in 1922, the baby of the family, and with three older brothers, I was the only daughter. My father called me his princess, and my brothers teased me about it. My father expected that I would marry young, and that I’d go along with his choice of a suitable husband. When I was eighteen, though, I convinced him to let me travel to Paris before I settled down. I promised I would only stay there for a year. But things changed when I fell in love with a young French illustrator named Emile. This was in 1940. Within a few short months, France would fall to the Nazis and my life would change in ways I never could have imagined.
What was your greatest talent?
I found my true calling when I worked as a teacher when I first arrived in Paris. I loved seeing the children overflowing with the joy of learning. People said I had a real gift for this work. But I didn’t see it as work. I loved inventing make-believe games that stirred their imaginations. So when I happened to stop by the little town of Les Paillettes and saw the dangerous work going on to save children, I knew I had to stay for as long as they needed me.
Significant other?
My husband was Emile, the illustrator I met in Paris. He spent his summers in Les Paillettes a child, which is how I happened to stumble upon the small village.
Biggest challenge in relationships?
My biggest challenge has been getting over past heartbreak and believing it’s possible to love again.
Where do you live?
I come from Baltimore, but lived in Paris and then Lyon for a short time, as the war played out. It is now the winter of 1943 and I am living in a house in Les Paillettes. My classroom is in a little building out back.
Do you have any enemies?
My enemies are Nazis who come closer and closer to my beloved home with each passing day, and who are threatening the lives of so many, including the Jewish children I teach here in Les Paillettes and am seeking to protect.
How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place?
I will always love Les Paillettes. It is the place my husband loved and drew me to. It is the place that has made me stronger, braver, and smarter than I ever expected to become.
Do you have children, pets, both, or neither?
I desperately want children. The Jewish children I am helping to protect from the Nazis – I consider them my children.
What do you do for a living?
I am a teacher. I live in the school where I teach.
Greatest disappointment?
My greatest disappointment is the loss of my husband, Emile. If I had been braver when I was living in Paris, perhaps I could have changed the course of our lives.
Greatest source of joy?
The babies and children I am trying to save here in Les Paillettes, and the other brave people – Rémy, Adèle, and Marie – who also are part of our secret group.
What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?
I love to compose rhymes to accompany the illustrations Emile drew for a children’s book we planned to write together. I also love teaching the children in my little classroom. And I love being surrounded by a group of adults as committed to the children’s safety as I am.
What is your greatest personal failing, in your view?
I regret not working hard to try to save my husband back when I was in Paris.
What keeps you awake at night?
The coded messages I’m seeing on Emile’s drawings. Are they codes written by Resistance fighters – or a Nazi trap?
What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
I believe we may be able to save at least one of the children by making a daring escape – but can I convince the others that it’s the right decision?
Is there something that you need or want that you don’t have? For yourself or for someone important to you?
I am lonely. I want to be loved again.
Why don’t you have it? What is in the way?
The war and the Resistance take up all my attention. The children need me. It would be selfish to pursue love right now. But I hope someday to be in love again and to have a child of my own.
THE SECRET ORPHANAGE by Barbara Josselsohn
Beautiful and heartbreaking World War Two historical fiction
In a quiet village in German-occupied France, schoolteacher Celina ushers young Jewish children into her classroom. Watching their bright smiles as they learn how to write, she and sweet, handsome Remy promise to protect them. Every day she pretends to send them home, waving at the local police roaming the streets, as instead they sneak away to hide upstairs.
But Celina can’t stop thinking about the note left on her bedside table last night. Written in the secret code used by the Resistance, it told her a baby she’s sheltering could be reunited with its mother. Will Remy ever forgive her if she attempts to take the baby home? If she’s caught, they could discover the orphanage…
New York, present day. Haunted by a loss he refuses to speak about, Rachel’s grandfather is slowly losing his memories. Then Rachel finds a name scribbled into the old children’s book he used to read to her, which leads her to a French village with a dark and dangerous past.
Nothing can prepare Rachel for what she finds behind the orphanage’s crumbling façade. But as her own future becomes entwined with her grandfather’s wartime secrets, she will learn just how much courage it takes to follow your heart.
A breathtaking, emotional historical novel that will sweep you away to World War Two France, to the dangers of Nazi occupation, and the hope that prevailed in the darkest of times. For fans of Victoria Hislop, Soraya Lane and Fiona Valpy.
Women’s Fiction Historical [Bookouture, On Sale: August 15, 2025, Trade Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781836186137 / eISBN: 9781836186151]
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About Barbara Josselsohn
Barbara Josselsohn is a best-selling novelist and journalist who loves crafting stories about strong protagonists facing a fork in the road. Her newest book is The Secret Orphanage, a multigenerational novel about an American schoolteacher who becomes embroiled in the French Resistance and a present-day librarian compelled s to discover her grandfather’s wartime secrets. Her earlier historical novels include the Sisters of War series (Secrets of the Italian Island, The Lost Gift to the Italian Island, and The Forgotten Italian Restaurant). She is also the author of five contemporary novels: The Lilac House, The Bluebell Girls, The Lily Garden, The Cranberry Inn, and The Last Dreamer. Barbara has written hundreds of articles and essays in major and regional publications about family, home and relationships. She lives just north of New York City and enjoys escaping to the beach whenever she can. Other than writing, her biggest passion is her family: her husband, her three kids, and her rescue pup, a mini-schnauzer named Albie. She is currently at work on her ninth novel.
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