A review by jmatkinson1
Paris Echo by Sebastian Faulks

5.0

Tariq is a Moroccan teenager, sexually frustrated and looking for adventure he decides to travel to Paris, former home of his long-dead mother and a city he is obsessed with. Hannah is an American academic who travels to Paris to research the lives of women during the Occupation and to exorcise the ghost of an unsatisfactory love affair from her last visit ten years before. Tariq is an innocent abroad, he knows nothing of the famous French that his beloved Metro stations are named after, but his eyes are opened to two sad events, the deportation of the Parisian Jews from Drancy and the massacre of the Algerians several years later. Hannah finds her life intertwined with the stories of the women she is researching.
Many reviewers say that this is not Faulks' finest book, it may well not be, but a lesser offering from Faulks is still better than most other books published! I loved this book and am prepared to forgive the slightly confusing elements because it is such an emotional story. I ended it wanting to know more about the plight of the Algerians under Pappon, a tale that is glossed over in French history. Faulks is a wonderful writer, he draws the reader in with emotional power until the reader really cares about the characters and then is hit with the bigger message. I don't think this is one of Faulks' weaker books, it is just wonderful.