
Small Acts of Defiance
A Novel of WWII and Paris
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $25.19
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Anthea Greco
-
Eloise Mignon
-
By:
-
Michelle Wright
About this listen
"In Small Acts of Defiance, Michelle Wright paints a beautifully intimate portrait that celebrates the courage and resilience of the human spirit."— Jane Harper, author of The Survivors
A stunning debut WWII novel from award-winning short story writer Michelle Wright, about the small but courageous acts a young woman performs against the growing anti-Jewish measures in Nazi-occupied Paris.
“Doing nothing is still a choice. A choice to stand aside and let it happen.”
January 1940: After a devastating tragedy, young Australian woman Lucie and her mother Yvonne are forced to leave home and flee to France. There they seek help from the only family they have left, Lucie’s uncle, Gérard.
As the Second World War engulfs Europe, the two women find themselves trapped in German-occupied Paris, sharing a cramped apartment with the authoritarian Gérard and his extremist views. Drawing upon her artistic talents, Lucie risks her own safety to engage in small acts of defiance against the occupying Nazi forces and the collaborationist French regime – illustrating pro-resistance tracts and forging identity cards.
Faced with the escalating brutality of anti-Jewish measures, and the indifference of so many of her fellow Parisians, Lucie must decide how far she will go to protect her friends and defend the rights of others before it’s too late.
©2022 Michelle Wright (P)2022 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Librarian Spy
- A Novel of World War II
- By: Madeline Martin
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ava thought her job as a librarian at the Library of Congress would mean a quiet, routine existence. But an unexpected offer from the US military has brought her to Lisbon with a new mission: posing as a librarian while working undercover as a spy gathering intelligence. Meanwhile, in occupied France, Elaine has begun an apprenticeship at a printing press run by members of the Resistance. It’s a job usually reserved for men, but in the war, those rules have been forgotten. Yet she knows that the Nazis are searching for the press and its printer in order to silence them.
-
-
Good story, disturbing narration.
- By John on 09-22-22
By: Madeline Martin
-
The War Girls
- By: V. S. Alexander
- Narrated by: Kelli Tager
- Length: 16 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's not just a thousand miles that separates Hanna Majewski from her younger sister, Stefa. There is another gulf—between the traditional Jewish ways that Hanna chose to leave behind in Warsaw, and her new, independent life in London. But as autumn of 1940 draws near, Germany begins a savage aerial bombing campaign in England, killing and displacing tens of thousands. Hanna, who narrowly escapes death, is recruited as a spy in an undercover operation that sends her back to her war-torn homeland.
-
-
Courageous Sisters
- By Sara on 08-10-22
By: V. S. Alexander
-
The Paris Agent
- By: Kelly Rimmer
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden, Fiona Hardingham, Emma Fenney
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty-five years after the end of the war, Noah Ainsworth is still preoccupied with those perilous, exhilarating years as a British SOE operative in France. A head injury sustained on his final operation has caused frustrating gaps in his memory—in particular about the agent who saved his life during that mission gone wrong, whose real name he never knew, nor whether she even survived the war.
-
-
Powerfully moving story
- By Jennifer Greenfield on 07-28-23
By: Kelly Rimmer
-
The Librarian of Burned Books
- A Novel
- By: Brianna Labuskes
- Narrated by: Caroline Hewitt, Eleanor Caudill, Karissa Vacker
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For fans of The Rose Code and The Paris Library, The Librarian of Burned Books is a captivating WWII-era novel about the intertwined fates of three women who believe in the power of books to triumph over the very darkest moments of war.
-
-
Banned books, history repeating itself
- By Amazon Customer on 05-07-23
By: Brianna Labuskes
-
The Paris Deception
- By: Bryn Turnbull
- Narrated by: Mary Jane Wells
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sophie Dix fled Stuttgart with her brother as the Nazi regime gained power in Germany. Now, with her brother gone and her adopted home city of Paris conquered by the Reich, Sophie reluctantly accepts a position restoring damaged art at the Jeu de Paume museum under the supervision of the ERR—a German art commission using the museum as a repository for art they’ve looted from Jewish families.
-
-
Fascinating Page Turner with Heart
- By Syd Young on 06-03-23
By: Bryn Turnbull
-
The Silence Before Dawn
- WW2 Resistance Series, Book 1
- By: Amanda Lees
- Narrated by: Sofia Zervudachi
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For months, Marianne’s resistance network has carried out courageous missions from a remote farmhouse in Southern Provence, aiding the Nazis’ downfall. But one fateful night, they are viciously ambushed as German soldiers storm in, scattering, capturing or killing every last person there. Mourning the loss of her friends, Marianne will need every ounce of courage to survive. Not only has her life as a secret agent been critically compromised, but her heart has been shattered. Because Jack, her darling fiancé and fellow spy, fled in the chaos–and is accused of being a traitor.
-
-
Definitely holds promise…
- By Bob L. on 11-04-22
By: Amanda Lees
-
The Librarian Spy
- A Novel of World War II
- By: Madeline Martin
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ava thought her job as a librarian at the Library of Congress would mean a quiet, routine existence. But an unexpected offer from the US military has brought her to Lisbon with a new mission: posing as a librarian while working undercover as a spy gathering intelligence. Meanwhile, in occupied France, Elaine has begun an apprenticeship at a printing press run by members of the Resistance. It’s a job usually reserved for men, but in the war, those rules have been forgotten. Yet she knows that the Nazis are searching for the press and its printer in order to silence them.
-
-
Good story, disturbing narration.
- By John on 09-22-22
By: Madeline Martin
-
The War Girls
- By: V. S. Alexander
- Narrated by: Kelli Tager
- Length: 16 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's not just a thousand miles that separates Hanna Majewski from her younger sister, Stefa. There is another gulf—between the traditional Jewish ways that Hanna chose to leave behind in Warsaw, and her new, independent life in London. But as autumn of 1940 draws near, Germany begins a savage aerial bombing campaign in England, killing and displacing tens of thousands. Hanna, who narrowly escapes death, is recruited as a spy in an undercover operation that sends her back to her war-torn homeland.
-
-
Courageous Sisters
- By Sara on 08-10-22
By: V. S. Alexander
-
The Paris Agent
- By: Kelly Rimmer
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden, Fiona Hardingham, Emma Fenney
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty-five years after the end of the war, Noah Ainsworth is still preoccupied with those perilous, exhilarating years as a British SOE operative in France. A head injury sustained on his final operation has caused frustrating gaps in his memory—in particular about the agent who saved his life during that mission gone wrong, whose real name he never knew, nor whether she even survived the war.
-
-
Powerfully moving story
- By Jennifer Greenfield on 07-28-23
By: Kelly Rimmer
-
The Librarian of Burned Books
- A Novel
- By: Brianna Labuskes
- Narrated by: Caroline Hewitt, Eleanor Caudill, Karissa Vacker
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For fans of The Rose Code and The Paris Library, The Librarian of Burned Books is a captivating WWII-era novel about the intertwined fates of three women who believe in the power of books to triumph over the very darkest moments of war.
-
-
Banned books, history repeating itself
- By Amazon Customer on 05-07-23
By: Brianna Labuskes
-
The Paris Deception
- By: Bryn Turnbull
- Narrated by: Mary Jane Wells
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sophie Dix fled Stuttgart with her brother as the Nazi regime gained power in Germany. Now, with her brother gone and her adopted home city of Paris conquered by the Reich, Sophie reluctantly accepts a position restoring damaged art at the Jeu de Paume museum under the supervision of the ERR—a German art commission using the museum as a repository for art they’ve looted from Jewish families.
-
-
Fascinating Page Turner with Heart
- By Syd Young on 06-03-23
By: Bryn Turnbull
-
The Silence Before Dawn
- WW2 Resistance Series, Book 1
- By: Amanda Lees
- Narrated by: Sofia Zervudachi
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For months, Marianne’s resistance network has carried out courageous missions from a remote farmhouse in Southern Provence, aiding the Nazis’ downfall. But one fateful night, they are viciously ambushed as German soldiers storm in, scattering, capturing or killing every last person there. Mourning the loss of her friends, Marianne will need every ounce of courage to survive. Not only has her life as a secret agent been critically compromised, but her heart has been shattered. Because Jack, her darling fiancé and fellow spy, fled in the chaos–and is accused of being a traitor.
-
-
Definitely holds promise…
- By Bob L. on 11-04-22
By: Amanda Lees
-
The Paris Assignment
- A Novel
- By: Rhys Bowen
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Londoner Madeleine Grant is studying at the Sorbonne in Paris when she marries charismatic French journalist Giles Martin. As they raise their son, Olivier, they hold on to a tenuous promise for the future. Until the thunder of war sets off alarms in France. Staying behind to join the resistance, Giles sends Madeleine and Olivier to the relative safety of England, where Madeleine secures a job teaching French at a secondary school. Yet nowhere is safe. After a devastating twist of fate resulting in the loss of her son, Madeleine accepts a request from the ministry to aid in the war effort.
-
-
Frustrating
- By ESay on 11-20-23
By: Rhys Bowen
-
Code Name Sapphire
- By: Pam Jenoff
- Narrated by: Nancy Peterson
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1942. Hannah Martel has narrowly escaped Nazi Germany after her fiancé was killed in a pogrom. When her ship bound for America is turned away at port, she has nowhere to go but to her cousin Lily, who lives with her family in Brussels. Fearful for her life, Hannah is desperate to get out of occupied Europe. But with no safe way to leave, she must return to the dangerous underground work she thought she had left behind.
-
-
Such a disappointment.
- By V. Temple on 03-29-23
By: Pam Jenoff
-
The Last Restaurant in Paris
- By: Lily Graham
- Narrated by: Polly Edsell
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In enemy-occupied Paris, as the locals go to bed starving and defeated by the war, music and laughter spills through the door of a little restaurant, crowded with German soldiers. The owner, Marianne, moves on weary feet between its packed tables, carrying plates of steaming, wholesome food for the enemy officers. Her smile is bright and sparkling, her welcome cordial. Nobody would guess the hatred she hides in her heart. That night, the restaurant closes its doors for the final time.
-
-
SO GOOD!
- By Carla Thomas on 04-20-24
By: Lily Graham
-
The German Wife
- A Novel
- By: Kelly Rimmer
- Narrated by: Nancy Peterson, Ann Marie Gideon
- Length: 13 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Berlin, 1930—When a wave of change sweeps a radical political party to power, Sofie von Meyer Rhodes’s academic husband benefits from the ambitions of its newly elected chancellor. Although Sofie and Jürgen do not share the social views growing popular in Hitler’s Germany, Jürgen’s position with its burgeoning rocket program changes their diminishing fortunes for the better. But as Sofie watches helplessly, her beloved Berlin begins to transform, forcing her to consider what they must sacrifice morally for their young family’s security, and what the price for their neutrality will be.
-
-
Awkward Narrative
- By Terri S. on 07-14-22
By: Kelly Rimmer
-
Daughters of Paris
- By: Elisabeth Hobbes
- Narrated by: Stephanie Beattie
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paris 1930s. Childhood companions Fleur and Colette make a vow, under the trailing ivy of their secret garden, that they will be secret sisters forever. But as they grow up, the promises of childhood are put to the ultimate test. For Colette is the daughter of the house, and her life is all jazz clubs, silk dresses and chilled champagne, while Fleur is the orphan niece of the housekeeper and doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere. Years later, in 1939, life as they know it will never be the same.
-
-
I had to start twice; a satisfying listen.
- By Bob L. on 11-20-22
By: Elisabeth Hobbes
-
The Last Hours in Paris
- A Novel
- By: Ruth Druart
- Narrated by: Daphne Kouma, Jess Nesling, Ben Jacobsen
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Elise Chevalier knows what it is to love…and to hate. Her fiancé, a young French soldier, was killed by the German army at the Maginot Line. Living amongst the enemy, Elise must keep her rage buried deep within. Sebastian Kleinhaus no longer recognizes himself. Forced to join the Third Reich and wear a uniform he despises, he longs for a way out. For someone, anyone, to be his salvation.
-
-
I loved this book!
- By Bob L. on 10-19-22
By: Ruth Druart
-
The Undercover Secretary
- By: Ellie Midwood
- Narrated by: Annette Chown
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was a misty Wednesday morning. Inside the Gestapo headquarters, you could cut the tension with a knife. There was a traitor in their midst: Someone had leaked a list of the SS to the British press. The head of the Gestapo called me into his office. Panelled oak walls, a grand piano in the corner, rugs lining the floor—the place where he ordered executions every day.
-
-
awesome story
- By MariaJKamp on 01-31-23
By: Ellie Midwood
-
The Nightingale
- By: Kristin Hannah
- Narrated by: Polly Stone
- Length: 17 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France—a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.
-
-
HEARTBREAKINGLY POIGNANT AND INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL
- By PatrioticMimi on 02-17-15
By: Kristin Hannah
-
Where the Sky Begins
- A Novel
- By: Rhys Bowen
- Narrated by: Emma Griffiths
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
London, 1940. Bombs fall and Josie Banks’ world crumbles around her. Her overbearing husband, Stan, is unreachable, called to service. Her home, a ruin of rubble and ash. Josie’s beloved tearoom boss has been killed, and Josie herself is injured, with nothing left and nowhere to go. Evacuated to the English countryside, Josie ends up at the estate of the aristocratic Miss Harcourt, a reluctant host to the survivors of the Blitz. Now a threat looms larger than anyone imagined. And a dangerous secret is about to upend Josie’s life again.
-
-
Probably the worst Rhys Bowen book I have read
- By Tony on 08-14-22
By: Rhys Bowen
-
The Golden Doves
- A Novel
- By: Martha Hall Kelly
- Narrated by: Jeremy Carlisle Parker, Saskia Maarleveld, Martha Hall Kelly
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
American Josie Anderson and Parisian Arlette LaRue are thrilled to be working in the French resistance, stealing so many Nazi secrets that they become known as the Golden Doves, renowned across France and hunted by the Gestapo. Their courage will cost them everything. When they are finally arrested and taken to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, along with their loved ones, a reclusive Nazi doctor does unspeakable things to Josie’s mother, a celebrated Jewish singer who joined her daughter in Paris when the world seemed bright. And Arlette’s son is stolen from her, never to be seen again.
-
-
Wanted to like it more than I did
- By Nicole on 04-19-23
-
We Were the Lucky Ones
- By: Georgia Hunter
- Narrated by: Kathleen Gati, Robert Fass
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New York Times best-seller with more than one million copies sold worldwide. Inspired by the incredible true story of one Jewish family separated at the start of World War II, determined to survive - and to reunite - We Were the Lucky Ones is a tribute to the triumph of hope and love against all odds. It is the spring of 1939 and three generations of the Kurc family are doing their best to live normal lives, even as the shadow of war grows closer.
-
-
Love it but...
- By Roz on 07-19-17
By: Georgia Hunter
-
All the Courage We Have Found
- By: Carly Schabowski
- Narrated by: Daphne Kouma, Philippe Spall
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
France, 1942: When Kasia is told she will be smuggled out of Poland to work as a radio operator with a French Resistance group, she plans to make the dangerous journey across the border alone. But when she meets a mute girl who she names Elodie, in a ghetto in Warsaw on the eve of her departure, she reminds Kasia so strongly of someone she loved–with one brown eye, and one green–that she knows she can’t leave her behind, no matter the risk....
-
-
Interesting character development and history
- By Michelle on 05-09-23
By: Carly Schabowski
What listeners say about Small Acts of Defiance
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Bob L.
- 08-09-22
Could not have loved more!
This is a masterpiece. I’m actually going to buy the hardcopy to read. Vividly atmospheric and the characters are so well-honed that you really feel like you are present with them. Since the pandemic, I have probably listened to 250 audiobooks, mostly in the World War II historical fiction genre. This is among the top 10. Just a well crafted story without saccharine romance, an overly plucky female heroine and an always happy ending for the main characters. Please write more, Michelle! You are very talented. Thank you for this amazing experience.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Queen's Jester
- 07-06-24
It is simply not realistic!
Family dynamics are not realistic! There is no way a daughter would react the way Aline reacts to her mother's abduction. The author forced this reaction as a setup to what happens next, but it is so unrealistic the story lost any credibility. I lost interest in the story.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!