This novel's six-day narrative, set in the Latin Quarter of Paris in the winter of 2012, expands into lifetimes, histories, as interconnecting stories are woven together: stories of abandonment and fractured families, rape and coercion, addiction, ambition, loss and grief, all told in moments. Daniel, an expatriate Australian who has lived in Paris for more than forty years, has made a mess of his life and is trying to atone, to become the 'good man' his friend Marcelline believes him to be. But Marcelline has disappeared, the quotidian world has been tipped out of balance and Daniel makes an error of judgment that places at risk everything he values. The novel's six-day narrative, set in the Latin Quarter of Paris in the winter of 2012, expands into lifetimes, histories, as interconnecting stories weave through Daniel's. Stories of abandonment and fractured families, rape and coercion, addiction, ambition, loss and grief, are told in moments and set within the context of war and occupation, the revolutionary sixties, riots in a Catalan town in the south of France, a grassroots movement to make visible the invisible homeless. The personal stitched into, and inseparable from, the political. And throughout, the constant of footsteps and pawpatter as Daniel and his old dog walk the streets of one of the most idealised and romanticised cities on earth.

Details

ISBN13: 9781764239745
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 200
Edition:
Publication Date: 04 Aug 2026
Publisher: Upswell Publishing
Publication City, Country: Australia
Dimensions (cm): 21(H)x15.1(L)x2.2(W)308
Weight (gm): 308

Author Biography

Amanda Curtin is the author of two novels, Elemental and The Sinkings; a collection of short fiction, Inherited; and a work of narrative non-fiction, Kathleen O'Connor of Paris. As well as writing, Amanda has been a freelance book editor for more than 30 years. She lives in suburban Perth, Western Australia-traditional lands of the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation-and works in a backyard studio among magpies, doves and old trees.

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