Paris Echo by Sebastian Faulks

Brief Summary: Hannah is an American graduate student studying history and writing a book chapter on women in Paris during the German Occupation. Tarrique is a teenage runaway to Paris looking for x. This unlikely duo forms a friendship that aides them in their personal journeys.

Highlights: By far the most interesting aspect was Hannah’s research on the women. I loved her methodology and then how she tracked down surviving women in person. I didn’t know there was a concentration camp in France and I enjoyed her visit there. Unfortunately, Terrique’s journey was far less interesting and I didn’t find his teenage musings all that interesting. The frirendship that develops between them is unlikely and heartwarming.

Explanation of Rating: 3/5: unfortunately, I had to listen to this audiobook twice to fully appreciate the plot because it was hard to keep my attention.

Thank you to Net Galley and the Publisher for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review

Paris Echo tells the story of American historian Hannah, who is researching the lives of women in occupied Paris, and Tariq, a Moroccan teenager who has come to Paris against his father's wishes for adventure and romance. As a resident of Paris, I loved the way this novel takes down the cliches of Paris. I found myself reading parts aloud to my husband, as Faulks captures so many of the truths about Paris--both humorous and dark--that are often glossed over.

One of Hannah's subjects of study is a woman who informed on Resistance fighters during the Nazi occupation. Although Hannah tries her best to understand the underpinnings of the mass collaboration that France barely acknowledges, her meeting with the still-living elderly subject forces her to face the reality of hatred and anti-Semitism that pervaded the occupation years in Paris. Tariq's own friendship with a man who has him carry money to a shady, probably terrorist organization underscores the complexity and nuances of choices thoughtlessly made.

What intrigued me most about this novel was the way both Hannah and Tariq at moments slip through time. It isn't a historical novel, but a novel steeped in history, and it isn't a fantasy novel, but it is a novel in which unexplained departures from reality as we know it take one, beautifully, by surprise.

Additional note: My enjoyment of this book was heightened by the fact that I live in Paris, and the novel gave me a glimpse into places I know in passing, as well as the intricacies of a culture in which I am very much an outsider. The collision of past and present makes for intriguing reading. I started this as an audiobook and gave up because it was difficult to understand the narration. I'm grateful for the digital copy from Netgalley, as I think this book is more fully experienced on the page.

PARIS ECHO

I liked this book. Hannah, a 30 something American woman researching the role of women during WWII, and Tajik, a 19 year old Moroccan young man searching for information on his Parisian mother, share an apartment through odd circumstances in Paris. Both learn a lot about the history of France and about themselves.

Not a lot of answers here, more a free flow of events. But it sure feels like Paris comes alive through this eclectically nice story. A lot of good historical information in here.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Sebastian Faulks, and Henry Holt & Company for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I tied to get into this book and did finish it, but it took a long time because I just couldn't get into the plot. The only bright spots for me was the WWII research. The rest of the book frustrated me.

Thanks to Henry Holt and Co. and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Hannah has moved to Paris to do some research on WWII. Paris has not been very kind to her in the past. She takes in Tariq, totally by accident. Tariq is a refugee determined to make it in Paris. Hannah and Tariq become strange friends but it works for them. Their connection is unique and enjoyable.

I love the matter of fact tone of this author. There is no sugar-coating, no over-dramatizing. It just is. However, the story is filled with mundane, everyday activities. This I could do without. It also repeats itself in several places. But, I could not stop reading. I enjoyed the characters and their struggles. Especially Hannah. She discovers something during her research and it totally knocks her for a loop! This is a game changer in this story.

I enjoy historical remembrance stories. This book did not have as many as I like, but it made up for it in historical references. I learned a lot in this read about the struggles many women had during the occupation of France. Not sure I have every really given that much thought. I love it when an author gives me a different insight.

I received this novel from Henry Holt for a honest review.

I feel like Paris Echo doesn't know what kind of a book it wants to be, so it is a few of them bound together: literary fiction and historical fiction with a sprinkle of self-discovery and ghosts. Our main characters are Hannah, a 30-something researching her contribution to a history book, and Tariq, a nineteen-year-old who decided to take a break from his native Morocco. Both of them have issues they're working on though they don't know it until they've already worked things out. I didn't find either character to be particularly believable or interesting but the writing style is different from what I usually read - that is what kept reading Paris Echo interesting for me. Ultimately it was an enjoyable read but this probably won't be a book I'll remember for very long.

Hannah is an American doing research in Paris about the experiences of women during the occupation in France during WWII. Tariq has come to Paris from Tangier, a young man who knows little of the world who wants to understand himself better and perhaps learn what happened to his French-born mother. Hannah and Tariq meet through a young woman and the reader follows each of them as they learn more about France - in present and its past. Hannah struggles with her own past, remembering the Russian lover who left her emotionally damaged when she lived in Paris a decade earlier. Unable to move forward and unable to process her past, Hannah becomes emotionally drained by the stories of the women she researches. Tariq, meanwhile, negotiates Paris, realizing he knows little about the city around him and its history, yet growing as a young man coming of age.

I wanted to love this book but was left feeling uninspired by it, The stories of the women in occupied France were interesting and I frankly wanted them to be the centerpiece of the book. Hannah's emotional issues were frankly not well developed and only well into the book does Tariq become more sympathetic and interesting. Faulks seems to have struggled with deciding what this book was addressing - and although there are parallels among the women of the past and Hannah and Tariq in the present, it doesn't feel cohesive or powerful.

Thank you to NetGalley for the free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Surprisingly luring novel "Paris Echo" by Sebastian Faulks. Besides our main characters, I've enjoyed the stories of women that were captured inside Paris during German Occupation.

American historian/researcher Hannah and Moroccan teenager and runaway Tariq find themselves in an interesting living situation. The young kid literally crashes at Hannah's apartment. But as time goes by, they find things they can help and teach each other and eventually become friends.

Both Hannah and Tariq arrived into a city of lights for different reasons. Tariq is searching for the history of his mother that past away when he was at a very young age. During his stay in the city, Tariq comes across a few people, including Hannah, who introduces him to French and Moroccan history. Besides history, Tariq is enjoying the city from a different perspective. Parisian culture, every street corner and metro station seems specifically enchanting to him.

And while Tariq is exploring the city, and stalking a beautiful stranger, Hannah is trying to complete her research she was sent to Paris to do. However, while doing the research of other women's past, Hannah is trying to escape her own. Will she be able to release herself from betrayal in the same city that broke her spirit in the first place?

"Paris Echo" is a wonderful novel with a phenomenal set of divergent characters. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I actually enjoyed this book. Thank you, Sebastian Faulks, for an amazing story and NetGalley and Hutchinson publisher for a free copy of this book.

I couldn't really connect with the characters and the story didn't ring true to me. The book is well-written but it just didn't engage me like I expected. I give it 3 stars for the writing.

I’m right down the middle on this one, so I’m giving it three stars. There were certainly things I liked about it, but there were some things that didn’t work for me. The narrative alternates between two characters who are very different, yet alike in some ways. Their paths cross in Paris while they are on journeys of self discovery and a friendship evolves. While they do connect, I had a problem connecting with them and felt removed from them for some reason I find difficult to pinpoint. Hannah returns to Paris after ten years to research “the experience of women in Paris under the German Occupation “. She seems to have lost her way, still carrying the hurt of a failed, past relationship when she was in Paris as a student ten years previous, so much so that she hasn’t been with another man in the last ten years. Tariq ,19 year old from Morocco goes to Paris trying to find his way. He is unhappy at school, unhappy at home and looking for something- perhaps to learn more about his French born mother who died when he was ten.

On his way Tariq meets Sandrine, another young person seeking something else in her life and connects with her. How Hannah connects with them felt unrealistic. Call me cynical, but I found it hard to believe that a woman on her own in a foreign country would bring a strange, disheveled, dirty looking sick girl back to her apartment. I found it equally unrealistic, again call me cynical, that one would take in this girl’s friend as a boarder without knowing much about him. Having said that Hannah and Tariq seems to find some understanding in each other. The stories of Juliette and Mathilde reflecting the past during the German occupation WWII were for me the best part of the book and perhaps the most profound part. Reflections on the history of Algeria and France were also enlightening. Fans of Sebastian Faulks may find more here than I did.


I received an advanced copy of this book from Henry Holt and Company through NetGalley.

Rating: 3 stars (Rounded up from 2.5)

This book wasn’t what I expected from Sebastian Faulks. It was a bit all over the board as to what type of genre it's meant to be. There is some contemporary fiction, historical fiction, and magical realism in this book. These genres sometimes worked well together, but sometimes they were dissonant, and it took me a bit of work to figure out what was going on.

In modern-day Paris, the stories of Hannah; an American post-doctoral researcher, and Tariq; a nineteen year-old Moroccan teenager, converge in Paris. Hannah is in Paris to research the lives of women who lived in Paris under the German Occupation during WWII. Tariq has run away from home, and traveled to Paris with a vague idea of finding out more about his dead mother. Through happenstance, Hannah allows Tariq (who she does not know) to stay in the spare room in her apartment. Threads of Tariq’s story, Hannah’s story and Hannah’s research about the almost forgotten Parisian women wind their way throughout the book. At some points, Tariq even interacts with a woman from the 1940’s.

There were illustrative stories about the horrible way that the French treated the Algerians during, and after their colonization of that country. There was historical information provided about some of the atrocities of the German Occupation of France, and the difficult position some Parisian women found themselves in before and after the war because of their relationships with the Germans. The Metro in Paris is actually a pretty big character in this story, as Tariq uses this as his method to travel throughout the city, and Hannah explains the historical significance of many of the Metro stop names to him.

All in all, it seemed like a bit of a mish-mash to me. While I learned something, considering the subject matter, the lessons turned out to be a bit dry for me.

‘Thank-You’ to NetGalley; the publisher, Henry Holt & Co; and the author, Sebastian Faulks; for providing a free e-ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Hannah is an American historian, and she’s studying World War II in Paris (sounds like something I’d love to do!). She harbors some resentment towards the City of Lights due to something in her past when she was younger.

Hannah meets Tariq, a Moroccan teenager, who sees Paris as a land of opportunity in stark contrast to his own he is fleeing. In need of a place to stay, he ends up boarding with Hannah. Both Hannah and Tariq are very much outsiders to the city.

Tariq begins to see Paris in a different, more complicated light, and at the same time, Hannah discovers something in her research that shakes her to her very core.

With themes of inequity and corruption versus dreams and seeking freedom, Paris Echo is a complex, beautifully-written, engaging novel of friendship and second chances. Hannah and Tariq form a bond that is healing for each of them. Hannah has to heal from her past, and Tariq has to heal for his future. The atmosphere is rich and absorbing, and the story is as well with its multiple layers.

Thank you to Henry Holt and Company for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

An in-depth look at two lives separated by a full generation. I think it is a beautiful view of Parisian lifestyle.

Published by Henry Holt and Co. on November 6, 2018

Tariq Zafar lives in Morocco but, at the age of 19, quits college in defiance of his widowed father, smuggles himself into France in the back of a truck, and hitchhikes to Paris, where his Algerian-French mother grew up. A streetwise young woman named Sandrine joins him for part of the trip and hangs out with him in Paris before wandering out of the story.

Hannah, an American in her early 30s, is making her second trip to Paris. She is turning her postgraduate thesis into a book chapter on French women in occupied Paris. She hopes her stay in Paris will be one of “pure thought,” but the reader knows that isn’t likely.

Hannah encounters Sandrine and, through her, meets Tariq. Hannah and Tariq become friends of a sort, but their greater connection comes from the photograph of a woman they see in a book, a woman they name Clémence. When Tariq begins to encounter Clémence in person, the encounters seem too surreal to be real. I’m actually not sure what to make of those scenes; perhaps more astute readers can educate me.

Tariq’s fantasies of the city do not match the reality it offers to a penniless Moroccan, but over the course of the novel, Tariq’s observations of diverse Parisians teach him that there are many ways of living. His experiences (both positive and negative) encourage him to think about the future that might be best for him. When Tariq ponders whether he should return to Morocco, he can make that decision as someone who has gained confidence, a bit of worldliness, and a sense of history, so in that sense Paris Echo is a coming of age novel.

Hannah has already come of age, but it is never too late to grow, and Hannah does that by the novel’s end. Her investigation of the past introduces her to the French resistance and the much larger population of French collaborationists, but her focus is on ordinary women who simply wanted to survive the occupation, sometimes by cozying up to German soldiers, sometimes by avoiding them. Hannah identifies with a woman named Mathilde as she listens to her recorded history, until Mathilde admits to having taken an act of revenge after being betrayed by her boyfriend. She also feels sympathy for a woman named Juliette, who befriended a German at a time when most Parisians supported Germany and hated the British, but was later denounced as a collaborator after Parisians switched their allegiance following France’s liberation.

Much of Hannah’s intellectual story is about remembering the past (rather than ignoring it or, worse, altering history to make it more comforting) and understanding the connection between the past and the present. But as much as Hannah wants to live a life of pure thought in Paris, her story parallels Tariq’s in her realization that there are many ways to live. Hannah must decide whether emotion should balance thought as she chooses her future.

Sebastian Faulk’s prose is notable for its fluid intelligence. The plot of Paris Echo can be seen as the two separate stories of Hannah and Tariq, stories that happen to intersect but that only influence each other in limited ways. Tariq’s story appealed to me more than Hannah’s, perhaps because the outcome of Hannah’s story is predictable, but Hannah’s research into the ways that Parisian women lived during the German occupation of Paris gives her story added depth. Paris Echo created too little dramatic tension to trigger my “wow” response, but the story succeeds on multiple levels, making it easy to recommend as a rewarding investment of a reader’s time.

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"A perceptual disturbance in the brain, some sort of time lag. You know, like déjà vu, when things have just gone out of sync for a moment.”

Hannah, Julian and Tariq all have their moments of Echo, perhaps Tariq most of all.

What a wonderful book. It is full of the essence, the smells and touch of Paris and Tangier. History is not behind us, but within us.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks to Netgalley and Henry Holt Co. for this ARC.

This was my first Faulks book and won't be my last. I loved the characters, even the character of Paris itself. Some of the history was new to me, especially the details about colonialism in Algeria and Morocco. I liked that he went (far) beyond the areas of Paris I've learned about before, including information on immigrants and their experiences in France. The back and forth of the chapter POVs kept it interesting and Hannah's interviewees were fascinating. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a glimpse of the reality of modern France, not the rose-colored Edith Piaf/Champs Elysees version.

The neighborhoods of Paris -as accessed by the Metro - are the catalysts for the stories of the two protagonists, Hannah and Tariq. With origins separated by an ocean and a sea as well as more than a decade in age, they are kindred souls searching for themselves and a human connection in the world we all inhabit. Paris - like all great cities - manages to both shelter and expose both of them from/to whatever they choose to experience. This is a coming of age tale for the new millennium where being 20 or being 30 does not result in being ready to commit to a certain life. With the extension of the human lifetime comes the luxury - or agony - of extended time to choose among increasingly numerous paths. What remains constant, as long as humanity retains its integrity, is the unquestionable quest for the connection to another living soul.
A necessary postscript:: The author giftedly renders a multi-dimensional vision of Paris which is further enhanced for any reader who has been fortunate enough to have spent time in that special city.

Paris Echo is, hands down, one of the best books I've read this year. The story intertwines the lives of three characters - Tariq, a young man from Tangier who goes to Paris to learn more about his French mother, Hannah, the vulnerable American middle-aged academic who is doing historical research on women during the Nazi occupation of Paris, and Julian, Hannah's now divorced ex-professor, who is trying to show Hannah how much he cares, even as she steels herself in armor to protect herself after a long-ago failed love affair in Paris. Weaving in and out of their lives are the women from the past that Hannah is studying, and even Victor Hugo, one of France's greatest writers. Sebastian Faulks pulls this off cleverly, seamlessly, and compassionately,. He conveys a razor sharp sense of location by anchoring his chapters in the major metro stops in Paris. Past and present are vivid and precise. The context of history is easily brought back to the present. I recommend this book for all lovers of good fiction.

I've read quite a few Sebastian Faulks novels and have enjoyed each and every one. They all have a similar feel, of longing, of loss. They are full of ghosts. Paris Echo is no different.

Hannah is a postdoctoral researched, living in Paris. She walks the streets, remembering a time ten years prior, where she was in love and looking at Paris with a different set of eyes. Hannah listens to women who were present during German Occupation, opening her eyes to the mystery of life in the city that she loves. Enter Tariq, a runaway teenage. Tariq is innocent and every corner holds a new experience.

As with all Faulks novels, there is humor and mystery. Paris Echo fell a little flat for me, I think because I have loved some of his others novels so much. I didn't really like Tariq, he was vain and kind of annoying...as teenagers usually are. ;) Still, this has the Faulks language and writing that I do love.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Hannah and Tariq are both looking for information about the past. In Hannah's case, she's researching women during the Occupation of Paris. Her story (and those she uncovered) were less interesting to me than that of Tariq, a 19 year old Moroccan she's taken in as a boarder. Tariq has come to Paris to learn more about his mother and his history. This novel could easily have been about him as he navigated being a young man in a new and different place. Faulks clearly knows and loves Paris, which is almost another character. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.