by Francine Prose. National Book Award finalist Prose' newest novel takes place in Paris from the late 1920s till the end of World War II. At its tumultuous heart is the Chameleon Club, a shadowy jazz venue that draw expats, artists, libertines, and others looking to indulge their true selves. It is at the Chameleon where the striking Lou Villars, an extraordinary athlete and scandalous cross-dressing lesbian, finds refuge among the club's loyal denizens, including the rising Hungarian photographer Gabor Tsenyi, the socialite and art patron Baroness Lily de Rossignol, and the caustic American writer Lionel Maine. 

Interestingly, Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 was almost a work of nonfiction. As Prose tells it, the idea for the book "began with a Brassai photograph I saw at a

The Brassai photo that inspired Prose

museum show in Washington. I was familiar with the photo, "Lesbian Couple at Le Monocle, 1932": a portrait of two women sitting at a table in a bar, one in a sparkly evening gown, the other in drag, with short hair and a tuxedo. But the wall text said something I hadn't known, which was that the woman in the tuxedo, a professional athlete named Violette Morris, had worked for the Gestapo during the German occupation of Paris and later been assassinated by the French Resistance."

Researching Morris, Prose uncovered a fascinating life   that she was tempted to write about, but she decided that fiction would allow her more liberties and the development of more characters. It also allows her to explore and bring to life pre-war Paris and the early years of WWII - overall, a brilliant piece of period prose.