Book Review: "Lost in Paris" by Elizabeth Thompson
“Lost in Paris” by Elizabeth Thompson
Bookshop | Kindle
Thank you to Netgalley for providing an advance e-reader copy of this book.
Publisher Synopsis: Hannah Bond has always been a bookworm, which is why she fled Florida--and her unstable, alcoholic mother--for a quiet life leading Jane Austen-themed tours through the British countryside. But on New Year's Eve, everything comes crashing down when she arrives back at her London flat to find her mother, Marla, waiting for her.
Marla's brought two things with her: a black eye from her ex-boyfriend and an envelope. Its contents? The deed to an apartment in Paris, an old key, and newspaper clippings about the death of a famous writer named Andres Armand. Hannah, wary of her mother's motives, reluctantly agrees to accompany her to Paris, where against all odds, they discover great-grandma Ivy's apartment frozen in 1940 and covered in dust.
Inside the apartment, Hannah and Marla discover mysterious clues about Ivy's life--including a diary detailing evenings of drinking and dancing with Hemingway, the Fitzgeralds, and other iconic expats. Outside, they retrace her steps through the city in an attempt to understand why she went to such great lengths to hide her Paris identity from future generations.
A heartwarming and charming saga set in the City of Lights, Lost in Paris is an unforgettable celebration of family and the love between a mother and a daughter.
Rating (out of 5): 3.5
Review: This is a perfectly charming mother/daughter story set in one of my favorite cities in the world (…Paris, natch).
When we meet Hannah, she’s giving a Jane Austen-themed tour in Britain (…sounds right up Elizabeth’s alley, amirite). As the synopsis says, her estranged mother appears on her doorstep and the proverbial shit hits the fan (pardon my…French). Hannah is incredibly wary of her mother, and we learn a bit more about where her trust issues come from throughout the novel.
To slightly reiterate the synopsis, they discover that Hannah’s great-grandmother (Marla’s grandmother) owned an apartment in Paris and it’s now been passed to them since Marla’s mother recently passed away. Suspending belief that things like property taxes would have been paid in perpetuity and keeping up w/ inflation (…OK), Marla and Hannah now just owe an inheritance tax on the apartment. Of course, because great-grandma Ivy fled Paris in early 1940 due to impending Nazi invasion, the apartment is perfectly preserved under a massive layer of dust and Hannah discovers Ivy’s diaries.
The narrative flips back and forth between diary entries spanning 13 or so years (1927, when Ivy arrived in Paris, through 1940) and present-day (2020). I did have a good laugh at the below passage, early on in the novel:
January 1, 2020—11 :00 a.m. London, England. The next morning, the sun smiles at me through the window of my upstairs bedroom, bestowing the promise of a brand new year. A brand new decade.
Sigh.
Anyway.
The diary entries really bring you into late 1920s Paris, a time period I know is pretty famous but still don’t know much about. Of course, Ivy encountered your Gertrude Steins and your Zelda Fitzgeralds etc etc, and Hannah and Marla discover she was in a relationship with a now-famous writer. And in present-day, Hannah and Marla zip back and forth between London and Paris at a rate that makes me incredibly jealous, as they navigate the logistics of owning an apartment in the City of Lights and a potentially important literary discovery in the apartment. Of course, family secrets are unearthed and Marla and Hannah’s relationship seems to mend awfully quickly given how estranged they were at the novel’s beginning.
A quick, fun read!
TL;DR: A charming tale of mother/daughter and familial love, with a fairly predictable family secret woven in, as well as a secondary love story. It’s a quick read and made me long for Europe. (Will we ever be allowed back????)
If you liked this, try:
“All The Ways We Say Goodbye” by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White (Elizabeth’s review) (Bookshop | Kindle)
“City of Girls” by Elizabeth Gilbert (Elizabeth’s review) (Bookshop | Kindle)
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