Paris Metro

De: Wendell Steavenson

Narrado por: Elisabeth Rodgers

“A nuanced, engrossing novel about conviction and terrorism in a cosmopolitan, complicated world.”—National Book Review

From the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 to the terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015, Paris Metro is a story of East meets West. Kit, a reporter, has spent several years after 9/11 living in the Middle East, working as a correspondent for an American newspaper. Along the way she falls in love and marries a charismatic Iraqi diplomat named Ahmed, before their separation leaves Kit raising their teenage son alone in Paris. But after the Charlie Hebdo attack occurs and, a few months later, terrorists storm the Bataclan, Kit’s core beliefs are shattered. The violence she had spent years covering abroad is now on her doorstep. As Kit struggles with her grief and confusion, she begins to mistrust those closest to her: her friends, her husband, even her own son.

©2018 Wendell Steavenson (P)2018 Recorded Books

Best listen of 2018

Intelligent, almost poetic without being opaque, intriguing and very realistic characters and settings. The kind of work that stays with me after the listening is completed. Ms. Steavenson's treatment of the realities of the Middle East rings with an authenticity that is rarely encountered. I hope she continues to write other novels. Elisabeth Rodgers' narration is superb and is perfect for this book.

If you want a detailed summary of the story, please see the Amazon book review of March 13 2018 written by "Liz."

Meh

I am a serious francophile and was recommended this book by a woman with a doctorate in French literature. I am pretty disappointed. Yes, it touches on Charlie and the Bataclan, but mostly it is a first-person narrative of a woman's globe-trotting yet somehow...kind of boring life. There's not much of a story here, no real antagonists or protagonists, and that's probably the point. Unfortunately the lack of structure bored me and I can't really recommended the book.