Paris by the Book

February 1, 2018
A pointedly literary romance--fueled by two children's classics--about a Wisconsin woman who moves to Paris with her two daughters after her husband's disappearance.From the beginning of their relationship, Robert and Leah shared their separate dreams of Paris. Robert, an author of young adult fiction, has always identified with the Madeline books by Ludwig Bemelmans; former film student Leah, who's become the family breadwinner as an academic speechwriter, is drawn to the Albert Lamorisse film The Red Balloon. When Robert, struggling with his writing and mental health, disappears without a trace, Leah and her daughters, Ellie and Daphne, then 14 and 12, don't want to believe he's dead but also don't want to believe he purposely left them. Then Leah finds that Robert has bought them tickets to Paris. Soon she's running a quaint bookstore in the Marais, sending the girls to an excellent French public school, eating wonderful French food, and having various romantic adventures. She is also remembering and analyzing her life with Robert, who remains an unsatisfying enigma to the reader as well as to narrator Leah. Nevertheless, Callanan (Listen, 2015) uses every magnet in his arsenal to draw readers of a certain sensitive literary persuasion: the Parisian bookstore, of course; romance between a 40-something woman and an erudite younger man (who is African-American, for good measure); a helpful, impeccably dressed gay male friend; precocious teenagers who love to read; obvious plot parallels to the children's classics; and the mystery surrounding a manuscript from the still-missing Robert that follows the storyline of his family in Paris too closely for Leah's comfort. Is Robert in Paris too? Is he hiding from his family or searching for them? Does Leah want him back, or is she relieved to escape the burden of his unhappiness?While Callanan writes about the difficulties of family relationships and the creative process with a knowing hand, the magical Paris he creates feels forced and threadbare.

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Starred review from February 26, 2018
In the sublime third novel from Callanan (The Cloud Atlas), a Wisconsin woman travels to Paris in search of her missing husband. Leah Eady’s author husband, Robert, frequently disappears for a few days to write, and Leah is understanding, but lately, she feels like a single mother to their two daughters, Ellie and Daphne. When Robert fails to return one day, Leah doesn’t panic, but after she discovers that Robert purchased a ticket to Paris, she decides to take her girls there, hoping he’ll be there waiting for them. Once there, it’s not long before they’re living above—and eventually running—
a failing bookstore called the Late Edition for the eccentric Madame Brouillard. Leah’s wryly funny narration jumps between her early days as an aspiring filmmaker with the troubled Robert and her time in Paris, where she imagines seeing Robert everywhere and eventually makes a shocking discovery. Callanan has crafted a beautifully-drawn portrait of a woman interrupted set among the exquisite magic of Paris, where life frequently imitates art and the ghosts of the past linger just out of sight. The mystery of Robert’s fate keeps the pages turning, but the real story lies in Leah’s rediscovery of herself. Book lovers and Paris aficionados will be enthralled.

March 1, 2018
Leah is intensely passionate about Lamorisse's The Red Balloon, both book and movie. Her husband, Robert, also a Francophile, adores Bemelmans' Madeline series. A children's book author, he often disappears for days to work on his craft. But this time, he never comes back. When Leah finds a clue suggesting his whereabouts, she and her daughters move to Paris in hopes of finding, or maybe forgetting, him. Callanan has woven a tale of grief, resentment, and the everyday madness of equivocating the unfathomable. (Of course, Leah's husband is dead. No, wait, of course, he's not.) Wry and introspective, Leah tries to suppress her thoughts about Robert, yet his disappearance looms on every page. Her daughters, also unsure of how to cope, lash out against her. Thus Callanan captures both how pain can feel perfectly normal and how these characters are only half-aware of their own suffering. Callanan's sweet and compulsively readable tale invites readers to fall in love with Paris, Leah, and her family.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

November 15, 2017

Plane tickets left behind by Leah's vanished husband, offbeat novelist Robert Eady, send Leah and her daughters to Paris. There, an unfinished manuscript points them to an English-language bookstore that Leah impulsively buys. From award-winning journalist and Edgar finalist Callanan.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.