“In 1881, Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted two young sisters from a Jewish banking dynasty at their home in Paris’s grand 8th arrondissement. ‘Pink and Blue,’ a portrait of Elisabeth and Alice Cahen d’Anvers, captures a fleeting moment of innocence and beauty, and today it is one of Renoir’s most celebrated works. His portrait evokes the glamour of the Belle Époque: days at the races, nights at the opera, sun-soaked chateaux, brilliant salons filled with art, music and conversation. Paris at its most dazzling…”  from the publisher’s description of The Renoir Girls: A Hidden History of Art, War & Betrayal.   This is a fascinating book, and through reading it I learned a great deal that I would no doubt have never learned any other way. For that reason alone, I strongly recommend it to those who are fascinated by — or simply just curious about — the life and work of Renoir; the Belle Epoque in Paris; the belle monde meticulously described in Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time; the history of antisemitism in France (especially as manifested in the Dreyfus affair); France under Nazi Occupation; and the aftermath of World War II.   Hôtel Cahen d’Anvers, 2 rue de Bassano, 16th arrondissement. Photo credit: Thomon/ Wikimedia commons Rigorously researched and intricately interwoven, the story of this wealthy and socially prominent Jewish family is a sprawling historical tapestry that both explores and exposes the lives of the super-rich in Paris from the late 19th century through the Nazi Occupation in the middle of the 20th. The lives and fates of three sisters from this prominent Jewish family who were painted by Renoir as young girls reflects the wide range of human responses to that period of history: some of the members of this extended family were brave résistants; some were collaborators; and some met a tragic end to their lives as prisoners in Auschwitz.   This is an immensely complicated story, with a sometimes overwhelmingly rich cast of characters that can be hard to follow. However, family trees in the front matter, and a “cast list” in the back are very helpful for those who get lost along the way, or who want to sum it all up in the end. There is also a very detailed timeline that plots not only major events in the lives of this family, but the historical, political, and cultural events and developments of the time. In addition, extensive endnotes as well as abundant footnotes provide plenty of documentation that is helpful for those who either already know a lot of the history of the English and French aristocracies of the period and are interested in the sources for particular details — or who know very little, but would like to learn more.  Portrait of Louis Cahen d’Anvers, by Léon Bonnat. Centre des monuments nationaux/ Public domain