These Dividing Walls

Book excerpt: Step into Paris as you have never seen it before. . . SHORTLISTED FOR THE HAYES & JARVIS FICTION WITH A SENSE OF PLACE, 2018 EDWARD STANFORD TRAVEL WRITING AWARD 'An engaging debut that throws light on a hidden side of Paris' Woman and Home 'A sensitive, necessary, brave book.' Laura Barnett, author of The Versions of Us What building doesn't have secrets? How much does anyone know of what goes on behind their neighbour's doors? On a hot June day, grief-stricken Edward arrives in Paris hoping that a stay in a friend's empty apartment will help him mend. But this is not the Paris he knows: there are no landmarks or grand boulevards, and the apartment he was promised is little more than an attic room. In the apartments below him, his new neighbours fill their flats with secrets. A young mother is on the brink, a bookshop owner buries her past, and a banker takes up a dark and malicious new calling. Before he knows it, Edward will find himself entangled in their web, and as the summer heat intensifies so do tensions within and without the building, leading to a city-wide wave of violence, and a reckoning within the walls of number 37. With a sultry heat to rival A Year in Provence and all the sharp perception of Leila Slimani's Lullaby, These Dividing Walls is a beautifully written and eye-opening novel about the Paris we don't see. 'It'll open your heart and mind. It certainly did mine' The Pool 'An unforgettable and unexpected portrait of Paris' Hannah Rothschild *********** What readers have said about These Dividing Walls: 'Totally engrossing - it was a magical pleasure to lose myself in these people's world each night' 'The quality of the writing in These Dividing Walls is never short of exquisite' 'This is an outstanding debut novel from an author to watch' 'A delightful glimpse into the lives of a group of people one hot and fearful summer'