The night light in the blue-tinged glass on the mantleshelf burned behind a book, which cast a shadow across half the bedroom. The quiet glow spreading over the bedside table and the chaise lounge, bathed the wide folds of the velvet curtains, and flooded the mirror on the rosewood cupboard between the two windows with … Continue reading A Love Story | Émile Zola
Tag: Set in Paris
The Sitter | Angela O’Keeffe
From the window of a hotel room in Paris: a view of rooftops, the brown river, a cobblestoned street, one corner of a scaffolded, burnt-out church. It is a morning in March 2020 and the air holds a breath of warmth. The sky is a pale, hopeful blue. I love it when a book takes … Continue reading The Sitter | Angela O’Keeffe
Giovanni’s Room | James Baldwin
I stand at the window of this great house in the south of France as night falls, the night which is leading me to the most terrible morning of my life. I have a drink in my hand, there is a bottle at my elbow. I hope I haven't left this too late! I've been … Continue reading Giovanni’s Room | James Baldwin
The Paris Bookseller | Kerri Maher
It was hard not to feel that Paris was the place. My response to The Paris Bookseller has been complicated. I was keen to read it thanks to the blurb which told me it had a Paris setting, a bookshop and Sylvia Beach. That should have been enough. But it wasn't. The writing was dull … Continue reading The Paris Bookseller | Kerri Maher
No. 91/92: A Parisian Bus Diary | Lauren Elkin
22/9/14 Monday morning Too early it's too early I hate morning classes I should not teach them. Lauren Elkin composed the diary entries in No. 91/92: A Parisian Bus Diary on her iPhone 5c from September 2014 to May 2015 as she was riding the bus to the university where she taught. It was a … Continue reading No. 91/92: A Parisian Bus Diary | Lauren Elkin
Les Miserables | Victor Hugo
The End! How on earth do I sum up in mere words such a magnificent, majestic, momentous story?! Les Miserables is a story full of pathos, compassion, extravagance and just a few flaws. Fortunately these flaws of logic and historical truth don't get in the way of Hugo's grander themes about love, redemption and sacrifice. … Continue reading Les Miserables | Victor Hugo
Pure | Andrew Miller
I'm trying to work out what I think and feel about this book. I've been left feeling somewhat perplexed - what was the purpose? What was pure? Why were we left with the elephant in the room? I subconsciously picked this book up from my TBR pile because I needed the title to weave some magic. … Continue reading Pure | Andrew Miller
A Moveable Feast | Ernest Hemingway
If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast. I've struggled quite a lot with this memoir about life in 1920's Paris. Not the writing style - I actually don't … Continue reading A Moveable Feast | Ernest Hemingway
The Paris Wife | Paula McLain
I confess that I knew next to nothing about Ernest Hemingway before reading The Paris Wife. I knew he was regarded as a literary hero by many Americans, that he lived in Paris during the 1920's and hung out with the Scott Fitzgerald's, Gertrude Stein, Ford Maddox Ford & Stella etc. I knew he was … Continue reading The Paris Wife | Paula McLain