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Impossible City
Paris in the Twenty-First Century
Description
An entertaining and openhearted tale of a naïf eventually getting to understand a complex, glittering, beautiful and often cruel society – at least a little.
When Simon Kuper left London for Paris in his early thirties, he wasn't planning to make a permanent move. Paris, however, had other
plans. Kuper has grown middle-aged there, eaten the croissants, seen his American wife through life-threatening cancer, taken his children to countless football matches on freezing Saturday mornings in the city's notorious banlieues, and in 2015 lived through two terrorist attacks on their neighborhood. Over two decades of becoming something of a cantankerous Parisian himself, Kuper has watched the city change.
This century, it has globalized, gentrified, and been shocked into realizing its role as the crucible of civilizational conflict. Sometimes it's a multicultural paradise, and sometimes it isn't. This decade, Parisians have lived through a sequence of shocks: terrorist attacks, record floods and heatwaves, the burning of Notre Dame, the storming of the city by gilets jaunes, and then the pandemic. Now, as the Olympics come to town, France is busy executing the "Grand Paris" project: the most serious attempt yet to knit together the bejewelled city with its neglected suburbs.
This is a captivating memoir of the Paris of today, without the Parisian clichés.
When Simon Kuper left London for Paris in his early thirties, he wasn't planning to make a permanent move. Paris, however, had other
plans. Kuper has grown middle-aged there, eaten the croissants, seen his American wife through life-threatening cancer, taken his children to countless football matches on freezing Saturday mornings in the city's notorious banlieues, and in 2015 lived through two terrorist attacks on their neighborhood. Over two decades of becoming something of a cantankerous Parisian himself, Kuper has watched the city change.
This century, it has globalized, gentrified, and been shocked into realizing its role as the crucible of civilizational conflict. Sometimes it's a multicultural paradise, and sometimes it isn't. This decade, Parisians have lived through a sequence of shocks: terrorist attacks, record floods and heatwaves, the burning of Notre Dame, the storming of the city by gilets jaunes, and then the pandemic. Now, as the Olympics come to town, France is busy executing the "Grand Paris" project: the most serious attempt yet to knit together the bejewelled city with its neglected suburbs.
This is a captivating memoir of the Paris of today, without the Parisian clichés.
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Praise
“His affection for Paris shines throughout the text, making it an enjoyable, balanced read. With a dry wit and a journalist’s eye, Kuper unravels the layered past and looks to the complex future of Paris.”
—Kirkus Reviews
"An affectionate take on Paris, by turns amusing and quaint… I learned that dressing dowdy is acceptable as long as you’re sporting a well-chosen scarf, and had my suspicions about Parisian waiters confirmed. Next time you travel to the former City of Light, take this book. You’ll enjoy it.”
—Evening Standard
“As [Kuper] recounts in this entertaining mix of memoir and anthropology, his time in the city, although pleasurable, has often seemed a never-ending struggle to be accepted into what, as the book’s title suggests, is one of the most closed societies in the world.”
—Sunday Times (UK)
—Sunday Times (UK)