The Paris Hours by Alex George

The year is 1927 and the location is Paris.  The lives of several individuals from differing backgrounds intersect in a fascinating exploration of how our lives impact those of other people and how fate and chance play a part in our lives in unanticipated ways.  Life has not always been kind to these characters but Paris remains as a location that can nurture dreams.

Guillaume is a struggling artist.  The love of his life was a short affair and he still remembers everything about it.  Lack of finances and crushing debt may force him to leave Paris and the artistic life but he still has hopes both to win professional respect and to reunite with his lost love.

John-Paul is a newspaperman.  He dreams of different lives, one where he is a novelist who can write whatever he wants instead of the next day's news and of living elsewhere.  But his past and the tragedy that shaped it keeps him in Paris and doing the same routines. 

Camille is a hotel owner with her husband.  But before that she was the housemaid and personal assistant to Marcel Proust.  When she discovers that her husband has sold her most prized possession which is a journal Proust asked her to burn, she is horrified and knows she must get it back at whatever cost. 

Souren is an Armenian, living in Paris after he immigrated there during an upheaval in his country where he and his entire village are forced out of their daily lives.  He spends his days using puppets to tell stories to Parisian children in the park and to work out the tragedies that still haunt his dreams. 

Each of these individuals will interact with the others in an eventful day that will bring joy to some and pain to others.  Along the way, they will encounter some of the more famous expatriates that call Paris their home in this period; Josephine Baker, Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway and others. 

The Paris Hours is a fascinating read and one that provides comfort and hope in these stressed times.  The intersection of the characters lives and the glimpses of more famous people keep the reader entrenched in the novel and the resolution of the different inner conflicts and blockages that keep the characters from their dreams is fascinating to watch unfold.  The research is extensive and well done and anyone who has visited or read about Paris will recognize scenes and locations.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.