Alex George’s “The Paris Hours” Weaves Four Desperate Characters Together in One 24 Hour Post WWI Day

In this episode 220, guest hosted by award winning author David Collins, we visit with award-winning author Alex George, author of “The Paris Hours.”

The book is set in one day in the City of Light and one night in search of lost time. Paris between the wars teems with artists, writers, and musicians, a glittering crucible of genius. But amidst the dazzling creativity of the city’s most famous citizens, four regular people are each searching for something they’ve lost.

Lauren Belfer, New York Times bestselling author of “City of Light” and and “After the Fire” and recipient of the National Jewish Book Award, says this about the book: “Unfolding over the course of one day in 1927, in a city whose citizens remain traumatized by the devastation of World War I, ‘The Paris Hours’ is a thrilling, irresistible marvel. In lyrical prose, author Alex George weaves together memory, loss, and yearning, portraying his characters with such vivid immediacy that I could imagine myself walking beside them along the winding streets of Paris, sharing their stories. Riveting, heartbreaking, and compassionate, ‘The Paris Hours’ continues to haunt me.”

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About the Author:

Alex George is a writer, a bookseller, a director of a literary festival, and a lawyer. He was born in England, but presently lives in the American midwest.

His novel, A Good American, was published by Amy Einhorn Books, an imprint of Penguin/Putnam, in February 2012. It was a #1 Indie Next Pick, a Barnes and Noble Discover New Writers Pick, an Amazon Best Book of the Month, a Midwest Connections Pick, and a Library Journal Best Book of the Year. It was a national and international bestseller.

Setting Free The Kites was published in 2017, also by Penguin. It was an Indie Next Pick, a Barnes and Noble Best Fiction Pick, a Library Reads Choice and a Midwest Connection Pick. It also won the Missouri Prize for Fiction in 2018.

His latest novel, The Paris Hours, was published by Flatiron Books, an imprint of Macmillan, on May 5, 2020. It was an Indie Next Pick, a Book of the Month selection, and an amazon best book of the month. It was a national bestseller.

About Guest Host David Collins

David Collins’s creative nonfiction essays have been published widely and three of his short essays have won awards, two for first place, one for second.

In July 2016, a chapter from the manuscript for his book, Accidental Activists: Mark Phariss, Vic Holmes, and Their Fight for Marriage Equality in Texas was awarded the Mayborn Award for Excellence in Nonfiction.

Accidental Activists was chosen as a finalist for an INDIES ‘Best Book” Award, was published by the University of North Texas Press in August 2017. Most recently, Collins edited a collection of short fiction and creative nonfiction for the Compass Flower Press.

Listen to the Charlotte Readers Podcast interview with David Collins about Accidental Activists HERE.

About The Paris Hours

One day in the City of Light. One night in search of lost time.

Paris between the wars teems with artists, writers, and musicians, a glittering crucible of genius. But amidst the dazzling creativity of the city’s most famous citizens, four regular people are each searching for something they’ve lost.

Camille was the maid of Marcel Proust, and she has a secret: when she was asked to burn her employer’s notebooks, she saved one for herself. Now she is desperate to find it before her betrayal is revealed. Souren, an Armenian refugee, performs puppet shows for children that are nothing like the fairy tales they expect. Lovesick artist Guillaume is down on his luck and running from a debt he cannot repay—but when Gertrude Stein walks into his studio, he wonders if this is the day everything could change. And Jean-Paul is a journalist who tells other people’s stories, because his own is too painful to tell. When the quartet’s paths finally cross in an unforgettable climax, each discovers if they will find what they are looking for.

Told over the course of a single day in 1927, The Paris Hours takes four ordinary people whose stories, told together, are as extraordinary as the glorious city they inhabit.

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