The Emperor of Paris
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Like his father before him, Octavio runs the Notre-Dame bakery, and knows the secret recipe for the perfect Parisian baguette. But, also like his father, Octavio has never mastered the art of reading and his only knowledge of the world beyond the bakery door comes from his own imagination. Just a few streets away, Isabeau works out of sight in the basement of the Louvre, trying to forget her disfigured beauty by losing herself in the paintings she restores and the stories she reads. The two might never have met, but for a curious chain of coincidences involving a mysterious traveller, an impoverished painter, a jaded bookseller, and a book of fairytales, lost and found…
“An elegant fable, charmingly written, and a tender, grateful paean to time, love and literature.” —Guardian “A dazzling exercise in understatement that centers on a seemingly grim topic ... Richardson offers a compelling look at an enviable marriage—one that just happens to be coming to an end.” —People magazine “A gem of a book....[Richardson] writes with such visual and emotional density that the end of one reading readily becomes the start of another.” —The Globe & Mail “In sparse, delicately exotic prose, CS Richardson constructs a rare and lovely ode to little things: to the beauty of half-spoken sentences and the very best intentions.” —Observer (UK) “The End of the Alphabet is a stunning accomplishment. To say so much in so few words is breathtaking. If Alphabet doesn’t become the next Tuesdays with Morrie, there’s something wrong with the world. And of course, it’s nothing like Tuesdays - because it’s so much more. I plan on telling my customers to give it to the one they love; someone who has lost, or is losing, someone; and anyone who needs to hope, who needs to cry, or who needs to really dream. I see this becoming a book that everyone will want to share with a friend after reading. Of course, all the book clubs should read it, but really, The End of the Alphabet should be in the hands of every chaplain, marriage counsellor, hospice worker and funeral director in the country. It’s that powerful.” —Keri Holmes, US bookstore owner (The Kaleidoscope) “An alphabet of the language of lovers, a beautiful fable of art and mortality: elegant, wise and humane. I like to think of the happiness this book will bring. I’m sure it will be given as a gift between lovers, and will inspire many journeys – geographical and emotional.” —Chris Cleave, author of Incendiary “Nothing less than gorgeous, a short and intense novel structured around the beautiful cul de sac of the alphabet itself....The story is irresistible....Evocative and unforgettable, it manages to arouse both a longing for travel and a longing for home.” —Calgary Herald “A novel that can be read in a single setting of less than two hours might continue to resonate with readers for weeks, months, even years.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “What would you do if you only had 30 days to live? Ambrose Zephyr takes his wife Zipper, on a beautifully written alphabetical journey, at the same time taking us on a loving adventure that is both humorous and intense. This is one of the best books I have ever read. I can’t get it out of my head.” —Mary McHale, Fox Tate Books (New Durham, NH) Genre/Category: Literary fiction
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From the author of internationally acclaimed The End of the Alphabet, the magical story of an unlikely romance between an illiterate Parisian baker and a woman with her head permanently buried in a book
