Echoes of past in the present

by Sebastian Faulks Hutchinson, £20 AS the novel’s title suggests, Paris Echo is as much about the French capital as it is about the characters that people its pages.

The chapter headings are the names of stations on the Metro and its streets, parks, monuments and history are brought vividly to life in a multilayered book exploring the German occupation of Paris in the 1940s, French colonialism, literature, history and identity.

These themes are explored through chapters narrated by Hannah, a 31-year-old American post-doctoral researcher, and Tariq, a 19-year-old runaway from Tangier. Hannah is still suffering the effects of a failed love affair in Paris a decade earlier and has returned to the city partly to face her demons but also to research the lives of Parisian women during the occupation.

She is a historian for whom the past is often as real as the present so she seemingly has little in common with Tariq whose grasp of history is so slender he does not know who Charles de Gaulle is.

His half-French mother died when he was a child so he has come to Paris to trace her family. By chance, he ends up lodging with Hannah.

There is almost no mutual comprehension between these two disparate people but gradually they throw light on each other’s worlds.

Tariq is ill-informed but bright and open to experience, his vision clearer than Hannah’s which has been muddied by years of unhappiness. In her research she is looking for stories of bravery amid the horror of war. Instead, she finds accounts of collaboration and informants.

Her French is imperfect so she takes the French-speaking Tariq with her when she interviews one of her subjects. Tariq protects her from the full reality of what the embittered woman is saying.

For Tariq, his six months in Paris are a revelation. He begins to realise that history is not dead academic study but a subject of relevance now.

Sebastian Faulks is the author of the bestselling Birdsong and war once again throws its long shadow over one of his novels. Paris Echo is another impressive achievement, with Tariq a well-fleshed-out character whose ignorance is beguiling. There is humour and humanity in this bold, perceptive novel. To order any of the books featured, post free (UK only), please phone The Express Bookshop on You may also send a cheque made payable to or postal order to: or you can order online at www.expressbookshop.com