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The Paris Trilogy: A Life in Three Stories (Hardback)
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The Paris Trilogy: A Life in Three Stories (Hardback)

(author), (translator), (translator)
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£14.99
Hardback 240 Pages
Published: 23/05/2024
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The Paris Trilogy is celebrated French author Colombe Schneck's first English language publication, translated by Lauren Elkin and Natasha Lehrer.

Writing in response to Annie Ernaux and in conversation with Elena Ferrante, Colombe Schneck's three semi-autobiographical takes on a woman’s life form an elegant, powerful exploration of sexuality, bodily autonomy, friendship, loss and renewal.

Colombe is seventeen in 1984 and carefree, busy discovering sex and studying for her baccalauréat. When she becomes pregnant her choice to have an abortion is never in question. Yet suddenly she must grapple with the body that has brought the precarity of her freedom into focus.

Colombe and Héloïse are two little Parisian liberals, friends since the age of eleven. They look alike, have similar upbringings and for years they follow parallel paths: university, love affairs, work, marriage, children, divorce, more love affairs. They are the most enduring witnesses to each other’s lives, until illness betrays them.

Colombe reconnects with Gabriel in her fifties; their relationship is passionate and transformative. As it unfolds, Colombe discovers many things about herself, including a newfound appreciation for swimming, and the euphoria and strength of a body learning when to push and when to let go. 

Advance praise for THE PARIS TRILOGY

'This is valuable writing. It has immense vitality. You will encounter a female narrator whose direct and bright-eyed stare at the world, and her self, is without shame or faux modesty. At the same time, it is also a deep study of existence, at various ages and stages in life.' Deborah Levy

‘The ‘movements’ of The Paris Trilogy thrum with life, sparkle with insight. It was an exhilarating read. I’ve never encountered a more perfect depiction of how the world shrinks when you understand that you’re a ‘girl’, rather than a ‘person’.’ Natasha Brown

Seventeen mines a trauma all too common for women and is published at a time when France has just enshrined abortion rights in their constitution. I found it a tale of frank retrospection, a mature woman looking back on her naive self with love and respect. It is immensely readable and still sadly relevant. Give it to every young woman you know.’ Monique Roffey
 

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
ISBN: 9781398529397
Number of pages: 240
Dimensions: 216 x 135 x 22 mm


MEDIA REVIEWS

‘This is valuable writing. It has immense vitality. You will encounter a female narrator whose direct and bright-eyed stare at the world, and herself, is without shame or faux modesty. At the same time, it is also a deep study of existence, at various ages and stages in life.’    - Deborah Levy

‘The ‘movements’ of The Paris Trilogy thrum with life, sparkle with insight. It was an exhilarating read. I’ve never encountered a more perfect depiction of how the world shrinks when you understand that you’re a ‘girl’, rather than a ‘person’.’  - Natasha Brown

‘Colombe Schneck writes with bracing intelligence and lucidity; she sees the world, and herself, with hard won clarity. A brave, beautiful, uncommonly tender book about love, death, sex and survival.’ - Katie Kitamura

‘Seventeen mines a trauma all too common for women and is published at a time when France has just enshrined abortion rights in their constitution. I found it a tale of frank retrospection, a mature woman looking back on her naive self with love and respect. It is immensely readable and still sadly relevant. Give it to every young woman you know.’    - Monique Roffey

‘Whether she’s writing about passion or perfecting the front crawl, there’s a frankness to Schneck’s meditations on womanhood – crisply translated here by Lauren Elkin and Natasha Lehrer – that is electrifying.’   - Hephzibah Anderson, Observer

'Schneck, translated by Lauren Elkin and Natasha Lehrer, also shares Ernaux’s plain style: simultaneously intimate and detached.' - Anna Leszkiewicz, New Statesman

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“Loved it! One to come back to again and again in years to come.”

The year has just begun and BAM! Comes The Paris Trilogy - a book I will treasure and come back to again in years to come.
In three semi-autobiographical stories Colombe Schneck examines abortion, female friendship,... More

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