The Lost Children by Susan McDonald – Author Interview

The Lost Children by Susan McDonald - Book Review

It's with such delight today we share our book review and author interview of the recently released novel The Lost Children, by none other than one of our loveliest long-standing blog readers and guest contributors, Susan McDonald. Susan loves France, and in particular the France Riviera, and has spent much time in Villefranche-sur-Mer. In fact she's previously written an article for us on this gorgeous town, often called the Jewel of the French Riviera - Villefranche-Sur-Mer on the French Riviera. Susan has also written an article on the best Walks in the French Riviera which highlights top spots to go, places to stay and how to explore hidden wonders whilst walking the French Riviera.

So bringing her knowledge of the region, love of history and English teaching and writing skills together, Susan has written a wonderful book that enticed me from the very beginning. With characters that feel real, places and events that you can easily imagine and a dramatic storyline that is evocative, I think you'll also love The Lost Children.

The Lost Children is Susan's first novel and is part of a trilogy - which is great news for us, the lucky readers. This is how Susan describes her book: "Set in July 1942, France is occupied by the Germans. Nice becomes a haven for many Jewish refugees who start to leave their children with Catholic priests. How does a twenty two year old along with her cranky grandmother set up an orphanage to hide them in their remote village?

The Lost Children is a story of triumph against terrible odds. It's about women saving themselves, and lost and frightened children. The brave unworldly Eleanor needs a lot of help to keep the children safe. Her brother, the cavalier Resistance fighter, poses major problems for her. But when he asks her to help a downed British airman, Eleanor cannot refuse.
Can she balance the feelings she develops for the airman with keeping everyone safe? How does she keep her life from unravelling? Who can she trust?" - Susan McDonald

Susan has shared insights into her research, writing processes, travel ideas and character arcs with us below. I know you'll love finding out more, and buying a copy for yourself to read. But beware, you'll be hooked and not able to put it down!

What first inspired you to write The Lost Children? Was there a specific moment, story, or piece of research that sparked the idea?

Every story begins with a spark. The specific moment when I realised there was an important story to write about WWII on the French Riviera began in the church of St Michel in Villefranche-sur-Mer. It was a random meeting with one of the older women in the village this Sunday morning in 2015. She was having difficulty lighting a votive candle and I offered to help. She told me that she lit a candle every Sunday, ‘For my father. He fought the fascists.’

As Oprah Winfrey says, it was my light globe moment, and I spent the entire church service and the next three visits to the village in full research mode about what happened in the area during the Occupation in World War 2.

What led you to write historical fiction, and do you plan to continue in this genre?

Historical fiction has been my preferred reading genre from when I was a child and read my first Holocaust and survival memoir, The Diary of Anne Frank. I studied European History in my first university degree. Once I became a teacher, I was able to teach senior and junior history. It was glaringly obvious that female characters are often missed in the retelling of history.

So, when I read Irene Nemirovsky’s, Suite Francaise, my passion was ignited and I knew that I had to write about ordinary women being forced to do extraordinary things. It was when my research hit on the rescue network in Nice to save Jewish children, called the Marcel Network based out of the bishop of Nice’s palace, that historical genre became my focus for writing.

Why did you choose the French Riviera as the setting for a WWII narrative? What drew you to that region during that specific time?

It was happenstance that I was in the French Riviera for the first time in 2015, alone and exhausted from 12 years of teaching senior English in Australia. I needed somewhere safe, close to an International Airport with views and swimming. The fact that I ended up in the beautiful medieval village of Villefranche sur Mer on the Mediterranean was good luck rather than good management. At the time, fortune smiled on the brave and I discovered the many gaps in the history of the war there.

Not many people knew that the Italians took up occupation of the area around Nice in 1940 or that there was bombing in Menton until April 1945. In many of the villages, there are plaques and commemorative statues to the Resistance warriors. Each one is a story. To feed my imagination, I was able to interview 90-year-olds who remember the sound of jackboots on the cobblestones when the German soldiers marched through their villages. They were poor places in the 1940’s and absent of men who were either prisoners or elderly. Villagers blocked the local fountains as a deterrent to enemy soldiers. Imagining the difficulties with food and complex feelings of an Occupation was something I found intriguing.

How has your perspective on WWII or the region changed through your research and writing?

Whilst there were problems or catastrophes created by denouncements and informers during WWII, the overriding characteristic I discovered in the majority of real-life characters, or the characters I created, was good humanity. Many children were hidden or rescued by ordinary French people in WWII. Some suggest that the number was as high as 10,000. The courage to put their lives and the lives of their families or fellow villagers at risk is an area I wanted to explore in my story.

Were any of the characters or events based on real people or true stories you encountered during your research?

Roquebrune is the real life setting of the orphanage for the story. Coco Chanel, known to the villagers as Mademoiselle Gabrielle, chose land for her villa La Pausa on the outskirts overlooking Cap Martin in 1937. She was controversial but I liked the way she was fair with the villagers, employing them to set up her garden and feed her guests during the summer months. Madame Blanche Imbert ran a village restaurant and was responsible for saving many people who left for the Swiss border through Chanel’s gardens. Three generations of family run restaurants in the village and on the coast at Carnoles.

Also, I was fascinated by the story of the Odette Rosenstock who had the nom de guerre of Sophie Delattre. She and her partner Moussa Abadi authenticated the false identities of more than 520 children until 1944 when Odette was denounced and sent to Auschwitz. In one of her rare post war interviews said that she couldn’t do what she did if she had children of her own and that the courage of those parents to save their children sustained her in dark times. Her story of survival is very special, and it inspired me.

What historical details about the Riviera during WWII surprised you the most?

The single detail that surprised me in my research was the fact that Coco Chanel’s architect, Robert Streitz, constructed a secret radio room in the cellars of the villa, La Pausa. There, he was able to contact the brave men called passeurs, who escorted fugitive Jewish people from Chanel’s gardens to the Swiss border. No amount of research could ascertain whether Chanel had knowledge of this operation. As she didn’t miss much, it can be assumed that she was aware and perhaps used it after the war to clear her name when she was accused of collaboration.

As a first-time novelist, what was the biggest challenge you faced while writing The Lost Children?

Self-doubt is crippling for many writers. When I felt that I wasn’t doing a good enough job of the writing, or whether I was doing the story justice, I’d throw myself into more research. This process allowed me to regain focus and dive back into the story. Also, I had too much information and it was difficult to cut characters from the story. Nancy Wake, called the White Mouse by the Gestapo who put an enormous reward on her head, visited Jean Moulin’s gallery in Nice earlier than July 1942 when my novel opens. She operated from Marseille and near the Spanish border for her escape line. Later, she parachuted back into France and ran a battalion of Resistance fighters in central France. I couldn’t work her into my story because the dates didn’t fit.

What advice would you give other writers attempting a first novel, especially one rooted in history?

Write lots and read more. Be willing to surrender details and constantly ask ‘what do the characters know?’ It’s important to balance facts with plausibility. Admittedly, there’s something rather magical in creating a world around significant events such as the arrival of Gestapo Captain, Alois Brunner from Paris who established a sub-camp at the Excelsior Hotel in Nice to register rounded up Jewish people for transportation to death camps.

Did you plan the entire trilogy before writing book one, or did the scope of the story expand as you wrote?

The scope of the story expanded of it’s own accord into three books. I was advised to keep the number of characters to a manageable level and, in this way, I was able to develop them or lose them. One of my favourite characters is killed in the third book and that was very sad to write.

How did you balance historical accuracy with fictional storytelling?

The balance between what happened in real life, where the gaps exist in the research and what information I need to move the narrative along is a fine balancing act. The Lost Children is a work of fiction inspired by real life events. Some details had to be changed, combined or invented for the purposes of storytelling.

What part of the writing process did you enjoy the most—world-building, character development, research, or something else?

The most enjoyable part of the writing process was the conversation in my head with various characters. If I reached a stumbling block, I’d have a swim or a long walk or leave it for a few days and see what I could nut out. Invariably the solution was sitting right in front of me and the next writing session would be filled with anticipation and excitement.

Having a regular routine of writing in the morning and researching in the afternoon works well for me. Combined with very good brewed coffee which I take with me on my travels. A room with a view in beautiful places with either the sea or a tree outside my window helps to fuel my creativity.

How did Eleanor’s character evolve as you wrote the story?

In the beginning, Eleanor was closed and quiet. She was difficult to write about as she was grieving the accidental death of her parents and stuck in a remote village with her grandmother. I tried to tap into being a surly teenager who really needed a dose of gratitude for her extraordinary life. This is how the novel begins, going in search of her grandmother on a blisteringly hot day. I wasn’t convinced that she would be the central perspective until we realised together that the story was important to tell and that she was the best person to tell it.

The story developed around her supported by real life historical events. She is asked to do many things outside her comfort zone, like deliver food to her brother’s Maquis camp in the hills near the village. She has become so important to me that I couldn’t release her into the world with the first book until I knew what happened at the end of her story. That’s book three.

Did any character surprise you by taking a different direction than you had initially planned?

The character of the grandmother Genevieve grew in strength and crankiness as the story progressed in the first book. Initially, I focused on the qualities of my paternal grandmother, Nana Fran who was highly domesticated, wily and knowledgeable. Genevieve, or Mamie, as Eleanor calls her in the French way, was short like my grandmother, a magician with stretching meals and repurposing things like turning a woollen jumper into clothes for the orphan children.

But Genevieve’s ferocity to survive and beat the Germans was not something I anticipated. Her tough love became something like the step-mother in The Book Thief and the one-liners was a combination of every cranky older woman I’ve met in my life.

How do the children at the heart of the story reflect what you want readers to understand about resilience, courage, or innocence during wartime?

The arrival of the children happens quickly in the story. Over about three chapters. Then there is a break before others are collected and arrive along with some adults who take refuge at the orphanage. Eventually, there are thirteen children including one baby, three adults, the housekeeper, the local barman, a downed British pilot, Eleanor and her grandmother, Genevieve. I deliberately include the children in various scenes even with some dialogue to develop their characters. They are well-behaved and grateful, sensitive and intelligent. I want readers to understand that the children were traumatised by circumstances out of their control but that they are safe with Eleanor. In her care of them, she is determined that they thrive even though she learns along with them as to how the whole orphanage situation works.

Without spoilers, how does The Lost Children set up for the trilogy?

The ending in the first book is tumultuous in the final few chapters. Eleanor endures a series of horrible events after she is denounced by a character who is never seen and only discussed by others, mainly her brother Jacques. In turn, he is incapable of taking responsibility for his choices and is often absent on his boy’s own adventure. In direct contrast, the heroism of the downed British airman Edmund, who Eleanor rescues earlier in the book and for whom she has feelings, ties up a few loose ends on the romance front. There’s more romance in the second book, one steamy scene in a cupboard gets everything going. Readers have been asking for intimate moments. But I didn’t want the romance aspect to take away from the history in the story in the first book. Also, I find sex scenes very hard to write and prefer sexual tension.

Do the following books continue with the same characters, or do they introduce new perspectives within the same historical setting?

In books two and three, the characters face new challenges in response to Liberation and the battles that ensue particularly near them in Menton and the Italian border as the Germans retreat. The setting changes from the Riviera in the third book when Eleanor returns some children to relatives in the Channel Island of Guernsey in July 1945. In 2025, I travelled by train to St Malo from Nice on the same route as my characters. Then I caught a ferry to Guernsey as they would have done. This May in 2026, I was invited and presented at a book event in Guernsey and was interviewed on the BBC Radio on the story.

What do you hope readers will carry with them from book one as they move into the rest of the series?

I hope readers value the strength of Eleanor’s character in the face of terrible challenges and how devoted the characters become in caring for the children in their time of need.

What do you hope readers will feel or reflect on after finishing The Lost Children?

I hope readers feel a sense of elation at how well the characters survive the horrors of Occupation and understand the importance of resilience when faced with awful choices.

Which scene or moment in the book do you feel is most emotionally powerful, and why?

In Chapter Five, our protagonist Eleanor is meeting with the Bishop of Nice for the first time in a small church near the daily food market, Cours Selaya. She has been summoned to collect two small children who have been hiding in the roof of the church and need a safe home. A mother appears with her son and Eleanor witnesses the heartbreaking farewell as the child is being left. I could only write this scene once even though it was common for parents to leave their children with Catholic priests. I was aware that few parents returned. Despite the harrowing nature of this scene, Eleanor realises the importance of her mission to rescue these children and in saving them, she saves herself.

What conversations do you hope your book will inspire about WWII, survival, or the people of the Riviera during that time?

In reading The Lost Children, I hope readers feel inspired by Eleanor’s courage and feel gratitude for the choices we are given in our modern lives. The people living on the French Riviera during one of the most chaotic Occupations in the war displayed great humanity in the face of unimaginable cruelty. The fact that a few thousand Jewish people were transported to death camps out of many tens of thousands who sought refuge in the city is a testament to the bravery of French individuals. It has been a great honour to write this story, and I hope as many people as possible have the chance to read The Lost Children.

Thanks to Susan for helping us get behind the scenes of her writing process and being given such a wonderful insight into her book. Buy your copy of The Lost Children below from Amazon. 

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