One Night in November

by Amélie Antoine, Maren Baudet-Lackner (Translator)

November 13, 2015. It was a Paris night that began like so many others—until a series of terrorist attacks brought darkness to the City of Light. Stirred by the tragic events at the Bataclan music club, One Night in November locks into the hearts and minds of all those whose paths crossed that fateful fall evening…

A rebellious teenage girl in the throes of a crush. A middle-aged man eager to chase away his buddy’s blues. A young gay student rejected by his father, but discovering himself. Two new parents in need of a date night. They went out seeking love, laughter, and music—and then the world fell down around them.

Using intersecting narratives, award-winning author Amélie Antoine choreographs the shocking attack and its aftermath, from grief and devastation to hope and healing.

Genres: Fiction, Audiobook, Historical Fiction, Drama

190 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 18, 2017

Reviews

[lia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't put into words how much I loved this. I'm not ashamed to say that I cried a lot, I sobbed, I hiccuped, I rolled around, reading this book.

I got attached to the characters immediately. I knew what would actually happen. I felt like I was digging my own grave but I continued.

My only issue is that the author didn't get to tackle Islamophobia.

Kudos to the author for conveying emotions so well in her words.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Magen - Inquiring Professional Dog Trainer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review to come

It wasn't as sad as I expected, in part because I didn't connect with the characters. There were far too many and none had a enough of a background or story to feel very real. It's an obvious fictionalized account of a tragedy which the author didn't research much. While I understand Antoine's point about not wanting to write historical fiction in this case, research on how people respond to trauma would have greatly improved this book.

[Sarah c · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Very emotional and powerful book one night in November where they go to a concert and a tragedy happens where people are injured or die they explains what happens before and after the aftermath.

[Marci · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a hard book to review since it is fictionalized telling of an actual tragedy that happened in the not-so-distant past. It's the story of an Eagles of Death Metal concert one November night at The Bataclan in Paris. We see the fictionalized characters as they plan an awesome night with friends, family and fellow music fans. Then tragedy strikes and we see what happens when people are trying to help each other survive. After the tragic events have passed we see how it changes the people affected.

This was a difficult read because of the awful subject matter but I am so glad I did. Some people have criticized the author saying that she is trying to profit from the tragedy but I believe she was trying to help us understand the gravity of what happened. It was a tribute to those who lost their lives. With all the tragedy in the world these days I think we start to become numb to the loss during horrific events like the shooting at The Bataclan. We need to remember and do everything we can to stop these things from happening again. And I feel this is what Amelie Antoine did.

Amelie Antoine's words about why she wrote the book:
"One Night in November is my tribute to the victims and their loved ones. More than anything else, however, it’s a call to remember, because we will forget soon, too soon; we’ll move on to other things, like we always do. It’s the candle I humbly light, with the hope that it will withstand the wind and the passage of time."

Four stars. I think it's the reminder we all need in this time of turmoil all over the world.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a moving and powerful response to the terrorist attack on the Bataclan in Paris in November 2015, when so many were killed or injured, and is a fitting tribute to all those affected by the tragedy, victims and families alike. The author take a disparate group of fictional characters and in a series of vignettes shows them getting ready for and going to the event, what happens to them during the attack and how they cope in the aftermath. I certainly shed a tear at one point, as although these are indeed fictional characters they all seem so real in their responses that the reader could easily mistake the book for a non-fiction account. Compelling reading indeed.

[Joel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book to check the prompt of “A book with a time of day in the title” for the 2018 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge. I received my copy of this book via a Goodreads giveaway, which in no way influenced my opinion of it.

One Night in November is fiction based on the 2015 terror attack at a concert in Paris. It weaves the lives of 10 concertgoers in brief chapters that explore the times before, during, and after the attacks. The “before” usually explains how and why the person received their tickets, “during” describes the attack itself and the characters’ struggle to survive, and the “after” ranges from just after the incident ends until a year later.

Despite being a relatively short (less than 200 pages), the author does a good job of getting into the characters’ heads during the chapters devoted to each. The author’s skill at reaching into the human heart and displaying raw emotion is impressive. I spent the greater part of the book believing I was reading experiences of real people. It wasn’t until a couple of the “after” sections that I began to doubt (specifically, the ones involving children—I can occasionally deal with precocious children in fiction, but not when their vocabulary and emotional intelligence are so extensive they are able to vocalize extremely mature thoughts and observations as easily as pouring a glass of water onto the ground.)

Still, this was a very gripping, fast read that is a sad reminder of the world in which we live today, where religious extremists feel empowered and vindicated by indiscriminately taking lives of people who don’t agree with their ideology.

4 out of 5 stars.

[Isabel · Rating 3 out of 5]

"One Night in November is my tribute to the victims and their loved ones. More than anything else, however, it's a call to remember, because we will forget soon, too soon; we'll move on to other things, like we always do. It's the candle I humbly light, with the hope that it will withstand the wind and the passage of time.
I hope that my words will do some good. That my characters are a worthy tribute to all the victims of November 13, 2015.
To those who didn't survive, and to those who continue to fight to live their lives.
May we never forget." Amélie Antoine

[Hafsa | حفصہ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disclaimer: Received a free digital copy of the book through Netgalley.

#TheReadingQuest: Open World ✔

This book was heartwarming and emotional, and the intention of the writer behind writing it felt so real and honest. Thus, it really pains me to give it anything less than 5 stars. However, as much as I could connect with it on an emotional level, there were so many things which could've made this a better read.

The plot was based on a real life tragedy and I loved the concept of the ten characters and their interwoven lives as well as the structuring of the book. However, the writing was not up to par, and I was sorely disappointed in the translation. Sentence structuring was also butchered by the translator. There was also too much telling and not enough showing, e.g."Clara is an awesome friend and so laid-back."

Furthermore, I really wanted this book to address Islamophobia, which is a key aspect of a tragedy like the Paris attack but sadly it didn't and at times it even clearly reinforced the idea of the 'model' Muslim terrorist shouting Allahu Akbar at the top of his lungs and killing people. I understand that since this was a tribute to the Paris attack, that had to be done, but I still cannot help myself from condemning this use of media stereotypes.

Overall, a succinct read, full of realism and emotions, failed by the translation and at times the writing.

[Sandra M Stott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed Feelings

I must agree with all the positive reviews about this book. It was beautifully and sympathetically written and I am sure the author had good reason to write it.

However, I came back to it several times before I downloaded it. I couldn't get away from the feeling of guilt that I was reading a supposed work of fiction based on so recent a tragedy. I wonder how anyone who had been there, or lost a loved one, would feel reading this, knowing that money was being made from it's sale. I sort of wish I hadn't read it and feel rather voyeuristic to the people who are still suffering the aftermath of this awful event. Hence, three stars rather than the five the actual writing deserves.

[Amyruszkiewicz · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was awful. Completely hamfisted and heavy handed and read like a college sophomore taking his first creative writing class. The author is capitalising off of and commercialising a horrible tragedy.

November 13th in Paris happened. Very real people died and very real people, less than two years later, are still processing very raw scars. Instead of telling their stories the author opts to just make up imaginary people and speculate on how they might feel. Those are the stories we should be hearing.

The author employs a lot of silly tropes and ludicrous plot devices. The entire thing was just so juvenile and trivialising.

[Heather Doughty · Rating 4 out of 5]

***I won this book via the Goodreads Giveaway program. This did not influence my opinion***

This book is based on the event that happened in Paris, November 13, 2015. The characters are all fictional. The author intended to pay tribute to all who survived and those who lost their lives by imagining their experiences. For some, this could be an emotional book and difficult to read. For others, it might not go in-depth enough. I grappled with how I felt about it and came to realize that it is a piece of cathartic art, like a piece of music written to memorialize 9-11 or a statue to memorialize someone who saved a life.

There are 10 characters. Each are told in three different ways: before the event, at the event, and after the event. Each character's chapter is a glimpse into their life and how they came about going to the concert held at the Bataclan and where they were during the concert. The aftermath is particularly emotional to read. These chapters are really meant to be snapshots and not in-depth accounts. Their reactions are all normal and straight out of Psychology 101. Some have the fight or flight instinct, some freeze, some have survivors' guilt, some have nightmares and terrors.

The writing is easy to read. It is translated from French and easily one of the best translations I have ever read. It's very smooth.

The one thing that is glaringly missing from the aftermath portion of the book is the mention of terrorism. After all, this was an act of terrorism. I think it was wrong not to explore the anger and fear of terrorism. The reactions that are described could be true for any life changing event like surviving a tsunami, a plane crash, or a fire. I am not sure why the author chose not to talk about the terrorism aspect of the event.

Overall, this is a quick read. It is powerful. It is emotional. It is probably not for everyone.

[L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Antoine gives us a fictionalized, yet, as she hoped, true, account of ten people (and their loved ones, present with them or waiting for them) who experienced the horror of the attack on the Bataclan music club in Paris, on November 13, 2015. Unlike some who reviewed this book, I did not cry as I read. Perhaps I am unable to empathize sufficiently. Perhaps I am unable to allow myself to empathize sufficiently. I don't know. But while I did not cry, neither did I sleep after reading it. This is a powerful, moving account.

As at least one reviewer noted, Antoine does not tackle Islamophobia. Neither does she confront the politics of fear and hate; perhaps those play out differently, less powerfully, in France than in the U.S. But no matter; "One Night" is not a political analysis, but one author's attempt to wrestle with a tragic event and its aftermath. And she succeeds in doing something analyses and media reports, with their continuous looping footage of the event and of loved ones in tears, telling us what a wonderful, caring, giving person each victim was, are not able to do. She uses her art to liberate those who suffered through this event from identities/labels such as victims or survivors or heroes and makes them real, ordinary, familiar, fallible, wonderful human beings, the sort of people with whom we interact every day as we go about our lives. She also pushes us to recognize that today's young adults have never lived at a time when attacks and mass killings were not part of our reality, a profound generational reminder. Finally, she ends this book on a note of hope, as some of the characters take back their lives, resisting all that their experiences have slammed them with. We are seeing this resistance today, in a more overtly political form, as youths who experienced the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and their peers lead the struggle for gun control in this country; this ending is, indeed, prescient.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, Amelie Antoine tells the story of several Frenchmen and women who experiences the terrorist attacks of November 13, 2015 in Paris. She begins by telling the reader something about the characters and how and why they got the tickets to the music concert by a well-known, popular band at the Bataclan music club. Each character has his/her own reasons for going to the concert, which are all interesting to learn. The book then shifts to the concert, where the attack occurs, taking the reader through the fear, anger, strength and caring shown by everyone in attendance, not just the small group of characters, all of whom figure prominently in the narrative. In conclusion, the author describes the aftermath of the attacks and their effect on these characters, the country and the world.

The book gives the reader a good picture of what happened that night in Paris and how it affected everyone there as well as others related to those in attendance. It was fascinating to read how the author pictured things going down. The characters, though not as well as defined as they could have been, were defined enough to give the reader a sense of who they were and to appreciate their emotions during the attack and afterward. This book provides a good, easily readable historical perspective of this horrendous attack and should send a warning of just how deadly terrorist attacks are and can be for those involved as well as for the entire country and world.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a work of historical fiction about the massacre by terrorists at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris in November, 2015. Amelie Antoine has created 10 fictional characters, men, women, and children of all ages, a cross section of people to memorialize those who were at that concert and experienced that horror. I was disappointed at first that this was not a first hand account by real people, but the author's afterward explained this and made complete sense. While the descriptions are a bit shallow at time, I still found this a compelling read, and the last 1/3rd is especially moving. The book as a whole does make this terrible tragedy more real, providing insight that a few news clips can not begin to explore or show. I won this in a Goodreads Giveaway from Amazon Kindle, and am very grateful for the opportunity to read this novel. It's a short read, and one that should make you think.

[Debra B · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't normally the kind of book I would read (I prefer mysteries), but I find myself profoundly touched by the story. As a rookie financial advisor, I had attended training at the World Trade Center just months before the 9-11 disaster. I watched the whole thing live on television, too numb to take it all in and understand what was happening.

Similarly, I find myself reacting to ONE NIGHT IN NOVEMBER in the same way. I am casually interested in the lives of those about to be affected by an event that will have a profound effect on their lives. Like the WTC, I found myself numbly reacting to the events at the Bataclan, too overwhelmed by all that happened. It is only when I see how the book's characters are affected by that night do I begin to feel their physical and emotional trauma and pain.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book through Goodreads’ First Reads program. This was a vivid retelling of the experiences of different individuals attending the now infamous 2015 Eagles of Death Metal concert at the Bataclan. The book is broken into 3 sections: before, during, and after. The author pulls you right into the story from the beginning, and the characters, though fictional, are so very true to life that it really drives home the tragedy of the event. The story doesn’t seek to explain why tragedies like this happen- it paints people who experienced the night’s events as whole people- not just victims or martyrs. I appreciate that the author handled the scenarios in the “after” section with both compassion and unflinching honesty.

[Theresa Wade · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book I have read by Amelie Antonie. This is a very interesting book. I was 100% sure until the end if the story of the 10 people were real and actual accounts. Even though it was not I do see how writing or reading about these 10 people could be therapy for people who actually experienced this tragedy. With all of the sadness and heart felt stories of these 10 people, I kind of a wish it was the true accounts. People may not want to read such a book because of the tragedy of Nov 13th but for others it may be needed.

[Geoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Speechless.

I bought this some time ago, but I didn't get around to reading it until after Las Vegas. And.... wow.

Don't start this unless you have a couple of hours free, with no distractions or commitments, because once you start you can't stop. You could call it a fatal fascination, knowing what everything is leading up to, but the emotions are more complicated than that. I finished this 10 minutes ago, after reading it straight through, and my muscles are still knotted tight.

I hope I sleep ok.

[Gail Wylde · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed (if that is the right word) this book. It follows the story of 10 very different people caught up in the Bataclan shooting in Paris in November 2015. We follow the stories leading up to, during and after. I felt the characters were all very believable and beautifully written. I know they are fictional but they felt very real.
I will admit to reading this book with a great big lump in my throat and would like to thank the author and Netgalley for giving me the chance to read this book. I will be recommending it to friends and family.

[Janice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read the first 10 chapters, each of which introduces a new character, making it somewhat difficult to get in to as you kind of lose continuity, I started part II which carries on the story with each of the same. At that point I found myself having to check back on who was who in the first part. So I may have missed out on a really good book but I don't have the patience to keep up with 10 storylines at the same time so I'm moving on..

[Kayleigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

One night in November

I received this book free in a giveaway and because of that, had minimal expectations but this book blew me away. To take an event people rarely speak of and make you feel connected to it is a gift. The characters are relatable, easy to follow and genuine, the story keeps a really good pace that makes you not want to put the book down and the whole story wraps up well. I would absolutely recommend this book to friends.

[Ashley Hite · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emotional fueled novel centered around the lives of 10 victims of the Bataclan terror attacks in Paris. This story is not focused on the violence and the horror of that grisly night in November 2015 but an attempt to pay homage to those who were there. Beautiful and heart wrenching, I highly recommend this novel.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book in public is a definite no no if you don't want people to stare at you because you suddenly burst into tears. It was very hard to read how ten Frenchmen and women cope with the terrorist attack in Paris back in November 2015. It is beautiful, even though i did not enjoy the first 3/4 of the book as much as the 1/4 of the last.

I would recommend it to other people!

[Suellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is the fictional account of an actual event. It's a character study about some of the victims of the terror attack in Paris at the Eagles of Death Metal concert on November 13, 2015. Approximately 120 people died at that concert. This book follows about 10 people before, during, and after the attack. 3 of 5 stars = I liked it

[mrs margaret burroughs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exceptionally good book, can't rate 5, just out of respect, but so made me think of the horror of that wicked attack.
It's a fact / fiction book, well written, sad, but very respectful to human reactions, their strengths and failings, but pure reaction.
No one ever knows how they would react until it happens xx

[Betty G. Bourquein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Triumph Over Tragedy

Amelia Antoine writes as she thinks people deal with senseless violence, the unexpected loss of a loved one, or the guilt associated with the failure to met one's own expectations. Highly relevant today, the book deals with primal responses to tragedy. Fictional but factual.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

NetGalley provided a digital ARC for my use.
It's been quite a while since I read this book, but it stuck with me. It tells the stories of multiple people who were involved in the Bataclan mass shooting. The alternating perspectives were a little frustrating-with everything going on, I wanted to finish one story to its end before starting another-but it helped keep me engaged in the book.

[Patti L Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Afterword

I had many questions and criticism until I completed and re-read "Afterword". I now better appreciate the reasoning behind this work. We must battle through the war of terror. Thank You for this journey through these 10 characters.

[Randy Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brighten your mind.

Authentic fiction about a real event that happened that takes you brilliantly through the process of overcoming a tragedy from the possible perspective of those who endured it. Excellent read that gives any reader a brighter feel for life.

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

One Night in November

A heart wrenching book. At times I had tears, even chills. Very emotional, with no "happy ending". A book I think everyone should read.