PARIS UNDER THE JACKBOOT: A Story of Condemned Love

This story is based on real-life events. Some character names and locations have been changed.Marcel is a famous French singer. Brooding, rough-and-ready and from the wrong side of the tracks, he arrived in Paris in 1934 and was discovered singing in the streets by Gérard, one of the city’s leading impresarios. When the story opens it is 1944. Paris is under the Nazi jackboot and Marcel is star attraction at Gérard's nightclub, Levalle's, the most celebrated in town. When Gérard is murdered, Marcel's already complicated life falls apart. He ends his relationship with Lucienne, his girlfriend with whom he has been living for the past five years, and can no longer see Connie, his mistress, because her husband is home on leave. While trudging the streets, drunk after curfew, he is picked up by Jürgen, a young German lieutenant who has worshipped him from afar for some time. Initially their relationship is platonic. In the past, Marcel has always ridiculed homosexuals, primarily because Maurice Leclerc, the effete waiter at Levalle’s, once made a pass at him and got more than he bargained for. Jürgen is different, he is strapping and manly, and as time passes, a deep and passionate bond develops between the two men as Marcel fights his demons to rebuild his shattered career. Meanwhile, the Liberation approaches, bringing triumph and tragedy in equal measure

Warning: this story contains strong language and scenes of a sexual nature.