Paris by the Book

by Liam Callanan

When eccentric novelist Robert Eady abruptly vanishes, he leaves behind his wife, Leah, their daughters, and, hidden in an unexpected spot, plane tickets to Paris.

• ISBN10: 1101986271
• ISBN13: 9781101986271
• Publish Date: 3 April 2018
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Imprint: Dutton Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

[MurderByDeath]

This one tries to suggest it's a mystery, but really it's not.  I categorise it as general fiction, as a woman and her two daughters follow a trail to Paris in hopes of finding her missing husband, who went for a run one morning and never came back.   I'm probably rating it a little higher than I would have right after I finished it.  Overall I have a feeling that the book is good, but thinking back to specifics, I remember I found the MC to be too remote, or too ... flighty?  to really know enough to decide if I liked her or not.  She just sort of floated along, while her two daughters came across as way too well adjusted and independent to be as affected by their father's disappearance as events in the book would have you believe.   I can't say much more without giving the plot away, but suffice it to say it's a decent read, and the premise sounds like heaven - move to Paris to run a small bookshop.  Sure - sign me up.  At least for a year or two.

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Paris By The Book is a literary novel by Liam Callanan. Released 3rd April, 2018 by Penguin Books - Dutton imprint, it's 368 pages and available in ebook, hardback, paperback and audiobook formats.

My first impressions were favorable honestly. The author has a very lyrical voice. The book is well crafted and the dialogue is smooth and never clunky. My problems with this book were that it unsettled me that I never quite figured out what the author's purpose was in presenting it. There were mystery elements, a few humorous ones, straight literary narrative... but nothing that really allowed me to become comfortable with the plot or understand what was really happening. For a long while I thought it was going to be an unreliable narrator type thing where she was hallucinating or that Robert had actually died and she was just not coping (that would've been interesting, but possibly more difficult to write). I didn't understand the motivations of pretty much any of the characters throughout the book. They felt like marionettes, sort of inserted into the scenery and jerked around by some VERY capricious offstage presence.

The actual story arc was full of unbelievable coincidences which just piled on top of one another from the very beginning. My suspension of disbelief was completely and irretrievably shattered by about page 12.

At the end of the day, the fact that someone (Robert) who professes to love and cherish their family (Leah + 2 daughters) could absolutely upend their lives with the worst imaginable trauma and keep doing it beyond the first time is unforgivable. It doesn't matter whether or not they cope or grow or progress or anything, he's a colossal jerk of biblical proportions.

It would be a stretch to say I hated this book. I certainly didn't enjoy it.

It -is- well crafted and well written (which added another star to my personal evaluation). In fact, the author is talented enough that I would like to read more of his work. I'm 99% sure there'll be a movie coming out sometime soon. I think it could work better as a film script, honestly.

Two and a half stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.