A quiet little gem, this one. If you like beautifully written sentences, fairy tales, a hint of romance, then you might seek this one out. There are several characters in this book and at first their lives seem to have nothing whatsoever to do with each other. Time skips about a bit too. But wait. And read on. At about the half way mark the threads start to knit up.
There is Octavio, born on the 8th August, 1908 (what else would he be called?), the son of a baker; and there is Isabeau, with her scarred face, painting restorer at the Louvre. Both are shy and lonely. Then there is Octavio's father, who returns from the Great War mentally broken; Jacob the artist who cannot sell a sketch; and Henri, the second hand bookseller - together with other lesser characters, these threads will eventually come together and form a wonderful picture of Paris in the first part of the twentieth century, and involve you in some stories about life, some hopeful, some sad. Lovely.
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