Perestroika in Paris

By: Jane Smiley

Narrated by: Suzanne Toren

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres and the New York Times best-selling Last Hundred Years Trilogy, a captivating, brilliantly imaginative story of three extraordinary animals - and a young boy - whose lives intersect in Paris.

Paras, short for "Perestroika", is a spirited racehorse at a racetrack west of Paris. One afternoon at dusk, she finds the door of her stall open and - she's a curious filly - wanders all the way to the City of Light. She's dazzled and often mystified by the sights, sounds, and smells around her, but she isn't afraid. Soon she meets an elegant dog, a German shorthair pointer named Frida, who knows how to get by without attracting the attention of suspicious Parisians.

Paras and Frida coexist for a time in the city's lush green spaces, nourished by Frida's strategic trips to the vegetable market. They keep company with two irrepressible ducks and an opinionated raven. But then Paras meets a human boy, Etienne, and discovers a new, otherworldly part of Paris: the ivy-walled house where the boy and his nearly 100-year-old great-grandmother live in seclusion. As the cold weather and Christmas near, the unlikeliest of friendships bloom. But how long can a runaway horse stay undiscovered in Paris? How long can a boy keep her hidden and all to himself?

Jane Smiley's beguiling new novel is itself an adventure that celebrates curiosity, ingenuity, and the desire of all creatures for true love and freedom.

©2020 Jane Smiley (P)2020 Recorded Books

Charming!

This is a very sweet story, just what I needed at the end of a not-very-sweet year.

A wonderful fable

After all the stressors in a year of Covid, this story was the perfect tonic.The reader has a wonderful voice and no one writes about horses better than Jane Smiley.

I wish I had read an accurate review

Or knew Jane Smiley’s work before buying Perestroika in Paris because I was expecting an unique perspective of Paris under cover of lost racehorse who ends up befriending a precocious dog named Frida, and the two begin to explore the city of lights forthwith. They end navigating down little know quite alleyways of the most romantic city only to be hungry, in fact starving. If it were for a lonely young boy who doesn’t go to school so he can take care of his aging grandmother take the ole filly and Frida into their run down flat that they can eat without worry of scaring the citizens or worse captured and being made into stew themselves.

NPR’s review hailed Perestroika in Paris was like a “... cozy fairytale trot through the city of lights.” Or WSJ’s vague but enchanting review as timeless tale full of good intentions and happy endings. There’s always the first line of each review that doubles down on the reminder that Jane Smiley is a Pulitzer Prize winner too.
I’d say reads more like a children’s book in which the whole family can read together like, some well know traditions of families reading together at Christmas with “The night before Christmas “
I would have like to spend my money on honest setting or historical references or being in the right place at the right time but I was misunderstanding the reviews from everybody.
It’s a 3 star and definitely readable to your first grader or for library reading hour.
I did like the narrator a lot and felt she read it as it was intended for a wide age range of audience.

Perestroika

Absolutely charming story from beginning to end. The narration is wonderful, I lost myself in it. I became part of the troop of animals as I listened. It was lovely and relaxing in a dreamy way.

Delightful story

The reader has a wonderful French accent that added to the full experience of the story. One felt the French ambiance. The characters, especially the animal characters, were well developed. The story highlighted the virtues of kindness and courtesy among animals and humans. Humans tend to overlook the natural world. This happy fable reminds us of other worlds, other perspectives.