In 1921 Francoise Frenkel
- a Jewish woman from Poland
- opens her first bookshop in Berlin It is a dream come true The dream lasts nearly two decades Then suddenly it ends It ends after police confiscations & the Night of Broken Glass as Jewish shops & businesses are smashed to pieces It ends when no one protests So Francoise flees to France just weeks before war breaks out In Paris on the wireless & in the newspapers horror has made itself at home When the city is bombed Francoise seeks refuge in Avignon then Nice She fears she may never see her family again Nice is awash with refugees & terrible suffering; children are torn from their parents; mothers throw themselves under buses Horrified by what she sees Francoise goes into hiding She survives only because strangers risk their lives to protect her Set against the romantic landscapes of Southern France No Place to Lay One's Head is a heartbreaking tale of human cruelty & unending kindness; of a woman whose lust for life refuses to leave her even in her darkest hours