Over Periscope Pond

Letters written by two young women in Paris during wartime chronicle their volunteer relief work among refugees and day-to-day life amid conflict. The correspondence combines lively social detail, practical descriptions of aid and logistics, and candid reactions to dangers such as air raids, conveying both humor and sober reflection. Together the letters sketch the city’s changing atmosphere, the routines and friendships that sustain the writers, and the small acts that give shape to their experience.