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Aug 9, 20231 min read
1084. Marghanita Laski - Little Boy Lost
Another very good book, although completely different. Set just after the end of the 2nd World War, Hilary Wainwright is an ex-British...
May 1, 20231 min read
1062. Gavin Collinson - An Accident In Paris
A library book via P. A P.I. Marc Novak is approached by a mysterious official-sounding couple to investigate the death of Lady Di In...
Oct 9, 20221 min read
1020. Antoine Laurain - The Presidents Hat
One via P. Very light, Parisian story about a man who inadvertently steals Francois Mitterand’s hat from a Paris restaurant. He...
Jan 12, 20221 min read
933. Olivier Norek - Turf Wars
This is pretty low grade. From the writer of the French TV serial 'Spiral', which we enjoy. This is just violent turf wars and political...
Nov 15, 20211 min read
915. Sebastian Faulks - Charlotte Gray
This is a brilliant book. I am not sure I had ever completed it before (the left had side of the spine is suspiciously unbent) and I had...
Jun 15, 20211 min read
869. Christine Feret Fleury - The Girl Who Reads On The Metro
P enjoyed this; I found it readable but no more. It is short – about a Parisian girl who finds an eccentric Iranian who distributes books...
May 21, 20211 min read
861. William Boyd - Love Is Blind
Local library now open again, post lockdown, so opportunity to try some books. This was very good – an almost 19th century novel written...
May 7, 20211 min read
858. Henry James - The Portrait Of A Lady
I have read this before, I think a very long time ago, as I had forgotten most of the plot. Long, hard work, but brilliant. The plot can...
Dec 24, 20201 min read
837. Émile Zola - Thérèse Raquin
I am reading these in chronological order as I find the complete works pretty un-navigable on my kindle. I have read this before, but...
Dec 12, 20201 min read
833. Emile Zola - Claude's Confession
I read this as a not very good Bildungsroman. About a young Provencal man who has come to Paris and ends up living in pretty abject...
Apr 2, 20201 min read
762. Leonardo Padura - Havana Red
Totally different from 760 above, unless I have misunderstood 760. This is quite a serious and challenging book, about a father murdering...
Nov 21, 20191 min read
731. Patrick Modiano - The Black Notebook
Heard about this guy on Radio 4’s ‘A Good Read’. Apparently quite a well known writer, has written loads, Nobel Prize listed, but I, like...
Oct 8, 20191 min read
720. Tracey Chevalier - The Lady And The Unicorn
Remarkably, there was another book of hers in the house, which obviously belonged to my Dad. This was totally different, although the...
Sep 6, 20191 min read
711. Sebastian Faulks - Paris Echo
Brilliant. As the blurb/a reviewer says, partly a hymn to Paris, but also via the alternating and very different narrators, an...
Dec 23, 20171 min read
560. Henning Mankell - After The Fire
Mankell’s last book, completed I think not long before he died. Unsurprisingly, quite a gloomy book, about an elderly retired doctor...
Nov 27, 20151 min read
357. Émile Zola - Nana
Didn’t plan to read another Zola, but finished no.356 unexpectedly in bed and needed something else to read. Zola is a terribly prolix...
Nov 20, 20151 min read
356. Émile Zola - L'Assommoir
This is a very grim book, in the vein of 'La Terre', but set amongst the Parisian working class. The central figure is Gervaise, who has...
Sep 24, 20151 min read
340. Patrick Gale - The Whole Day Through
A short and unplanned read post no.339 above. This is a very good book, but as I had forgotten about it I can’t think of much to say. If...
Jul 14, 20151 min read
321. Émile Zola - The Conquest Of Plassans
Plassans is the village where no.315 takes place, so we have moved back from Paris to Provence. A priest is taken in as lodger by a...
Jul 3, 20151 min read
319. Émile Zola - The Fat And The Thin
Zola’s books can be hard work. This is no.3 in the Rougon series; another completely different set of characters. This is set in the...