The Parisian

The Parisian is a gripping historical novel, a poignant romance, and a revelatory family epoch. Above all, it is a generous gift. There is a kind of joy that can hold not only pleasure, but struggle, and even sadness. This novel tells that kind of joyful story, and evokes that kind of joy in the reader' Jonathan safran four midhat Kamal – dreamer, romantic, aesthete – leaves Palestine in 1914 to study medicine in France, under the tutelage of Dr molineu. He falls deeply in love with jeannette, the doctor's daughter. But midhat soon discovers that everything is fragile: love turns to loss, friends become enemies and everyone is looking for a place to belong. Through midhat's eyes we see the tangled politics and personal tragedies of a turbulent era – The Palestinian struggle for independence, the strife of the early twentieth century, and the looming shadow of the Second World War. Lush and immersive, and devastating in its power, the Parisian is an elegant, richly-imagined debut from a dazzling new voice in fiction. *an observer hotly tipped debut novelist of 2019.