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Haunting Paris: A Novel
Current price:
$17.00
Publication Date: May 19th, 2020
Publisher:
Anchor
ISBN:
9780525565383
Pages:
288
Description
Paris, 1989: Alone in her luminous apartment on Île Saint-Louis, Sylvie discovers a mysterious letter among her late lover Julien’s possessions, launching her into a decades-old search for a child who vanished in the turbulence of the Second World War. She is unaware that she is watched over by Julien’s ghost, his love for her powerful enough to draw him back to this world, though doomed now to remain a silent observer. Sylvie’s quest leads her deep into the secrets of Julien’s past, shedding new light on the dark days of Nazi-occupied Paris. A timeless story of love and loss, Haunting Paris matches emotional intensity with lyrical storytelling to explore grief, family secrets, and the undeniable power of memory.
Praise for Haunting Paris: A Novel
“Elegantly wrought.” —The New York Times Book Review
“This fine first novel explores the ways history abides in the streets and monuments of an old city and in the human souls who love it and grieve for it and struggle to forgive it. A small parable, pondering the nature of civilization itself.” —Marilynne Robinson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Gilead
“Powerful and moving. . . . Audaciously, imaginatively constructed, with a heartbreaking, profoundly adult love story at its center.” —Russell Banks, author of Cloudsplitter and Continental Drift
“Haunting Paris explores dark questions—loss, grief, unforgivable crimes—but the novel itself is full of light and life and beauty. All the characters, even Coco the dog, seem touched with grace as Mamta Chaudhry tells her absorbing story. A wonderful debut.” —Margot Livesey, New York Times bestselling author of Mercury and The Flight of Gemma Hardy
“An absorbing must-read. . . . The city seems almost a character in itself, and Chaudhry’s evocation of Paris is superb. Her ability to render telling details and convey the sights, sounds, and the very texture of life puts the reader at its center.” —The Clarion-Ledger
“Haunting Paris is not only a love letter to the Paris of birdcage elevators and wrought-iron peacocks but also a submersion into one of that city’s darkest periods, a visceral account of the quotidian labor of living with absence and a reminder of the myriad ways in which we encounter voices from beyond the grave. Mamta Chaudhry’s novel is wonderfully moving.” —Jim Shepard, author of The Book of Aron and The World to Come
“A heart-wrenching love letter to Paris . . . . [Chaudhry is a] very fine writer.” —Publishers Weekly
“Chaudhry deftly portrays how a place can hold so much beauty and tragedy all at the same time.” ––Jewish Book Council
“Elegant.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Through pianist Sylvie and the flâneur ghost of Julien, Haunting Paris connects the living with our past. This extraordinary debut truly is haunting.” —Meg Waite Clayton, New York Times bestselling author of The Race for Paris
“A graceful debut . . . revealing a finely textured world where grief and love commingle.” —Booklist
“Poetic. . . . Chaudhry grounds her romantic tale and evocative language with details that are sharply realistic.” —New York Journal of Books
“A love letter to Paris that is luminous. . . . A quiet story that is nonetheless intense on emotion.”
––Historical Novel Society
“Haunting Paris is an extraordinarily beautiful novel about one of the ugliest events ever to take place in French history. . . . Chaudhry is a graceful, elegant writer.”––Bonjour Paris
