This is such a moving story combining present day Paris with 1980s Prague during the Cold War and 1990s Berlin after the removal of the Berlin Wall. It follows the life of Laure Carlyle from being an au pair in Prague, to being a British Embassy employee in Berlin and then to being the curator of the Museum of Broken Promises in Paris.

I thought this was a wonderfully written book. It’s quite powerful in its telling as well as being interesting and thought provoking. It’s also well researched. Life behind the Iron Curtain is so very vividly described and depicted, I was easily transported. What a fearful time it must’ve been to be constantly looking over your shoulder! The sense of oppression would’ve been so strong. The characters are well drawn and realistic. I was totally immersed in their stories. I loved the idea of the museum. It seemed a brilliant concept, exhibiting objects which symbolised a terrible grief or betrayal. It was a type of therapy or ‘letting go’ for those who donated.

It’s a story of love, treachery, faith, survival and forgiveness - very much a page turner. It did bring a tear to my eye at the end as it’s quite an emotional tale. It’s the first book I’ve read by Elizabeth Buchan and it won’t be my last. Highly recommended.

I desperately wanted to love this. It sounded so amazing! But unfortunately I just could not get into it. Like another reviewer said, I just kept falling asleep! I don't know why, I just couldn't make myself interested. Maybe I was in the wrong headspace, and I might prefer it if I tried again in the future. But for me, it just wasn't anywhere near keeping my interest. A shame, as it had a very interesting premise.

With thanks to Net Gallery and the publishers for the opportunity to read this.

This is the story of Laure and her time in Prague in 1986. I'll be honest I don't know much about this period in history but this is the second book I have read recently set in that period so I think may be I need to do a bit of reading up around it.

Laure now lives in Paris and is the curator of the Museum of Broken Promises, a place where people bring items that reflect a promise which was made to them and broken. For an example which will not deflect from the story, there is a tooth because the Dad said there was a tooth fairy and then no money was put under the pillow (What parent hasn't don't this?!!!!). Through these items and interviews with a journalist we start to learn about Laure's past and what has led her to this point in her life.

The writing is beautiful and the story haunting and I'm certain that this is one of those books that just stays with you and (this sounds very gushy) changes you a little.

This is a complex, emotional, thought provoking and intelligent read. It begins in the present day with Laure at her museum of broken promises in Paris. An intriguing idea for a museum where exhibits are donated by individuals who feel their chosen object represents a broken promise. I love the idea of this and it is central to the theme which alternates between the present day Laure,curator of the museum and to the time she was nanny to a family in Prague during the Cold War. It is a bleak novel in the sense that Laure has led a life consumed by guilt over a promise she broke years ago (which the reader will eventually discover). Bleak too as life in Prague is extremely hard especially for a young westernised woman, living in a society that watches your every move, a place you can trust no one. Laure works for Petr and Eva, the family living a more privileged life in relation to the majority since Petr works for the regime. He is a figure who is difficult to like for that very reason but the reader comes to understand that in many respects he is to be pitied as his life has followed an inevitable course, being a puppet of the state. He is in an impossible situation especially with wife Eva, who is mentally unwell and steadily declining since their return to Prague from Paris. This leaves Laure and Petr to form an uneasy and unusual relationship.
It’s very difficult to imagine living in a place where the state dictates everything, having to be wary of those around you and trying not to draw any attention to yourself. Of course there are those who oppose the regime and it is one of those dissidents, Tomas, that Laure falls in love with, first encountering him at a marionette theatre. These marionettes play a huge part in cultural life and Laure is drawn to this place and the puppeteers who put on the performances.
Political and poignant, this is a love story between Laure and Tomas, naivety on Laure’s part for believing their relationship can survive the harsh regime as she has to flee the country when she becomes a person of interest, a liability for not only the small band of dissidents but for Petr and his family. Laure experiences the brutality of the regime, suffering a vicious attack whilst briefly incarcerated in prison but fails to truly appreciate how vital it is to feign ignorance and not talk. Tomas and his friends are passionate in their beliefs, ready to put their lives on the line, which the author portrays eloquently. It is also a love story between Laure and Petr, complicated, unrequited and finally making me lose any sympathy I possibly felt for him although read this and you can decide for yourself!
The ending is very emotional and whilst this novel probably wouldn’t be my usual kind of read, I can fully appreciate the author’s heartfelt writing and it is definitely a book to make you think. Highly recommend and thanks as always to the author and publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read ahead of publication.

My thanks to Atlantic Books/Corvus for an eARC via NetGalley of Elizabeth Buchan’s ‘The Museum of Broken Promises’ in exchange for an honest review.

Today, Paris: The Museum of Broken Promises is unusual as every item on display has been donated and each represents a moment of grief or a terrible betrayal. People come to the museum to speak to their own ghosts and for some perhaps the opportunity to lay them to rest. Its owner and curator, Laure, has her own objects on display that reflect her painful youth.

A visit from a young American journalist, who wishes to interview Laure, triggers in her contemplation of this hidden past.

Following the death of her father in 1985, Laure had moved from Paris to Prague working as an au pair for a Czech family. She is quite naive and isn’t prepared for life behind the Iron Curtain. She clearly doesn’t understand the political currents that run below the surface. Then she meets Tomas, a charismatic young dissident, who changes her life forever.

Elizabeth Buchan unfolds the story slowly moving between the older Laure, who has clearly been damaged by life, and her younger self in Prague. On occasion we also visit Laure in 1990s Berlin where she now works for the British Embassy.

Buchan has masterfully captured life in Cold War Czechoslovakia as well as in Berlin after the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Laure emerges as a complex character, who has experienced both love and loss. Over the course of the novel she reveals her soul to us.

It is very much a European novel that highlights key social and political changes through the experiences of a woman with a mixed British and French background.

I found it a melancholic novel, shocking in places as it highlights the brutality of life in Cold War Czechoslovakia but also uplifting. Laure’s friendship with members of a marionette theatre troupe introduces some fairytale symbolism in the form of the story of Sleeping Beauty into the narrative.

This is the first novel by Elizabeth Buchan that I have read and I was deeply impressed by her skill in weaving such a compelling and complex story with characters that came vividly alive on the page.

Somewhat cliche( common elements one has read in countless books covering communism), the ever present love interest and somewhat of a happy ending(in the sens the almost all loose end are tied up by the end of the book) but for the life of me I couldn't keep a level head. The story really, really got to me, as in bawling my eyes out while reading the end...I guess you can say it really got to me as every story about communism did and always will!
Buchan managed to perfectly capture the complexity of life under a communist regime. A world where even the most innocent gesture can have/be seen as a politically charged one and how hard to grasp it can be for a westerner. A world where the tyrant is also the victim; where everyone is distrustful of everyone else; where everything becomes laden with meaning. A world you want to escape yet you don't.

I really enjoyed the depth of this book - intertwining two timelines to flesh out our main character, Laure, helped me better understand how she became her present day self, and what her motivations are behind opening the Museum of Broken Promises.

The flashbacks to Laure's time in Prague and development of the other characters during her stay there highlighted how no person is inherently good or evil - but a mixture of both - I.e.truly human.

Great historical fiction as this helped me better understand what going in in the Czech Republic in the 80s.

Thank you to Atlantic Books and Netgalley for the ARC!

A quirky museum of broken promises in present day Paris provides the catalyst for this story as Laure, the propieter, is approached for an in-depth interview by journalist May.
We are transported to 1980s Prague which is under the strict control of the communist party and Laura is au pair for an influential family. On her time off she becomes involved with a subersive rock group and finds herself under surveillance and arrested as a result of her relationship with lead singer Tomas.
Leaving on a train journey where Tomas is supposed to join her she is bereft when he fails to show and she has no idea what has happened to him and no way of finding out.
Twenty years on the heartbreak has not left her and she finds release in her new project-the Museum provides a place for closure and healing , not just for her.
A great story with at times harrowing description of oppression made more striking by being within living memory for those of us over a certain age
Evocative and chilling but a great story very well told.

A very unique story on one hand but unfortunately I couldn’t get over some parts of it.
I found it to be a great idea about the grieving moments and how people are trying to connect with their lost ones.
The characters though, I just couldn’t get to like her mostly because, living in different times and different countries with a lot of history, it should have helped her to grow as an adult a bit more, to be more strong and face her past in a different approach but that’s just my opinion. She takes a great step forward at the end in the book and I know that nobody is perfect but sometimes I like to read more about stronger heroines from whom I can learn something myself.

Thanks to the publisher, author and NetGalley for my review copy.

The Museum of Broken Promises by Elizabeth Buchan. This was a lovely read. I really enjoyed the interweaving of the stories of the objects brought to the museum and Laure’s story. The marionettes and Kočka as symbols and sobering reminders of political regimes, the idealism and recklessness of young love, and yet of enduring friendship. (I particularly loved Milos and his quiet enduring observation and concern for Laure)
The storyline and characters engaged me to the point that I read the book in one sitting on a lazy Sunday.

I really didn't enjoy this book. To start with it felt like I was reading a really badly translated script, with vital words missing on most pages, the verbal communication between characters all merged into one making it difficult to understand who was talking. There was too much political long winded writing which didn't add to the story. If it was just the cold war story with just the characters it would have been more enjoyable.
I really struggled to continue the book. Saying that, probably the last 20% was better.

I've always wanted ro read Buchan and when I saw a book set in Paris, my favourite location I jumped .. and it's been utterly rewarding. Warm and with great characters, the love story set in humane surrounding of a museum accommodating all broken promises, is engaging in extreme. The writing is allusive and drew me in ... I believed the personal dilemmas and felt them deeply. I won't give ending away but despite different expectations I brought to it, I was thoroughly satisfied.

This took me a disproportionate amount of time to read. Weeks instead of a week. Unfortunately every time I read it, I fell asleep. No idea why. It obviously just wasn't for me. I quite enjoyed the modern day Paris museum, and people bringing in their items showing broken promises and dreams, but the parts set in Prague in 1985 were harder to read. I was very glad to get to the end of the book.


I'm sure it was a good book, but just not for me.

Elizabeth Buchan has done it again, I have immediately fallen into her words and world and I am hooked, I leave not the same person I started, a little emotional, but always better for it. An inspirational read, truly wonderful about a tragic period of history, which I didn’t know that much about but the author drew me into it without any hesitation, a truly wonderful book, which i highly recommend to everyone. This book is a must read.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

An interesting and unusual tale set in Paris,Prague and Berlin during a troubled time. The characters were good and the idea of the museum an intriguing one,what would you donate?

Lovely haunting, thought provoking book especially if like me you remember the Iron Curtain. Laura spends a gap year as an au pair for a Czech family originally in Paris, then back in their hometown of Prague .1985 Czechoslovakia is communist and a very different place to modern day Paris where Laura now lives .The story flits between life in Prague where there are dark political undercurrents and present day Paris.
The museums objects ranging from Czech marionettes ,biscuit tins to train tickets have all been donated by people for whom they represent betrayal ,grief or a broken promise. Laura remembers her first love Tomas ,a dissident musician who she met in Prague and whose fate seems to haunt her . A young journalist is determined to discover the reason behind Laura’s opening of the Museum ,something Laura seems set on hiding .

So relieved that a 'war time' book centres on a different area of the trouble. This is a lovely book, set in Paris but takes us on a tour of the backstreets of Prague. I kept hoping, throughout the book, for a different ending but I'm an endless romantic. It was a beautifully written tale that evolved as I read on.

Would definitely recommend.

This book is really quite haunting and sad. It gives us a glimpse into how hard life must have been for those living in the Cold War times in countries like Czechoslovakia.
The writer has done an excellent job of painting a picture through the major characters, of life under repression and how nothing could be taken for granted - not even the love our main characters feel for each other.
It’s an excellent book and has given me the desire to delve further into history to read about the reality of these times.

This is set in three times periods, one of which I know little about - Czechoslovakia in the 80s and I really enjoyed learning more about the post war move towards communism, and how it became so extreme as to resemble fascism. I liked the main character and the concept of a Museum that stores objects connected with promises people have broken. I did feel it drag a little in the middle section. But it picked up again pretty quickly.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atlantic books for allowing me to read an advance copy for review.

Initially, I was very intrigued by this book. It tells the story of Laure, who lives in Paris and runs a museum. She’s still haunted by her past and has many unanswered questions.

The story alternates between the present day and Prague in the 80s, under communist rule.

A journalist manages to piece together Laure’s story and gives her some closure.

At the beginning, I enjoyed the book. I found it well written and I could visualise the places and atmosphere. However, about halfway through the story started to drag and the characters all became quite unlikeable and bland. It ended up being quite a chore to finish. A shame as the book had real promise to begin with.