Dual timeline novel set in PARIS

7th March 2023

Thirty Days in Paris by Veronica Henry, dual timeline novel set in Paris.

Juliet’s children have moved on in life and so has her husband. He has lately been fixated on exercise and ridiculously healthy eating and she can’t keep up. So they decide a separation is the best solution. She determines to spend a month – the 30 days of the title – in Paris, where she was an au pair back in her youth. She acknowledges: “I’m on a bit of a life break. Revisiting my lost youth. Trying to find myself. A La recherche du temps perdu“.

The chapters devoted to younger Juliet are titled ingénue, a good device to ensure the past and present are clearly delineated. Back in the day, working as an au pair for a French family, she was privy to the family’s everyday intimacies, the mum’s conflicted self, struggling with work and parenthood, dad’s easy-going attitudes and the children’s affections that they clearly felt for her. One day, it all comes to a sudden and cataclysmic end.

In the present, over the 4 weeks she will work on her writing, and shop, eat French food and drink French wine, she will also perhaps try and catch up with friends whom she met when she was last in the city. There is the chic and oh-so- French Nathalie, who brought her out of herself. And then there is wealthy Olivier, for whom she fell hook, line and sinker. How would these old friends feel if she touched base? How might she herself feel?

This is a story that bowls along with panache and verve, taking in many of the sights of the city; the sounds and smells lift off the page for a truly transportive and immersive experience. Whether you hanker after a trip up the Eiffel Tower or a meander around E. Dehillerin – spécialiste du matériel de cuisine  for some kitchen items, or perhaps even a trip to Père Lachaise Cemetery, the feel of Paris literally assails the reader.

Tina for the TripFiction Team 

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