The Cipherist of Normandy

Dunkirk, on the eve of the Second World War. Céline Chassaigne grows up in a country that never forgave her German origins. At school she's mocked as the Kraut's daughter, and so she retreats to the only place where the world can't reach her: her father's architecture studio, among sketches, curves, and dreams of light. Gifted, sensitive, determined, Céline is finally beginning to find her place. But in 1940, war sweeps everything aside - the exodus, the fear, the impossible choices.
And in the chaos of Dunkirk, she meets David, a British officer whose brief, intense presence upends everything she thought she understood about loyalty and attachment. When France falls, Céline refuses to give in to despair. In an occupied country where every gesture can cost a life, she chooses to act in the shadows, ready to risk far more than her freedom. Between silence, courage, and sacrifice, she discovers that resisting sometimes means learning to disappear.