There is so much to love about this book: the setting, the characters, the obvious love of books the author has. As much as I loved all the female characters and most of the male characters, I had a hard time feeling any empathy for Robert, the character that drives almost all of the action in this tale. Eccentric and troubled, I should feel more empathy but really, I 'm just left with feeling he was a selfish child who never grew up.

I have a love hate relationship with this book. The prose is compelling but as finding the husband (who is horrible) is the end goal I didn't care if he was found out not.

This gave me a PS I Love You kind of vibe, but despite its slow charm, it really disappointed me. I thought the idea was great, and it was nice to see a touching story about coping with loss and a productive way that focuses on development and growth. I must say that the title and cover had me the most drawn to this book and then once I realized how slow it was, I became very disappointed... there wasn't really any Paris.

The sudden disappearance of her husband is nothing new to Leah Eady, he has done it again and again in the almost two decades they have spent together. He needs some time-out for his writing, to gather his ideas. But this time, things are different. She cannot find his “away-note”. He never leaves without a short letting them know that he’d be back again soon. When Robert does not show up again after weeks, Leah and her two daughters are devastated. Some clues lead her to believe that he could be in Paris and thus the three of them head for the French capital. Sometimes things just happen and later you cannot recollect what exactly was the decisive moment, so Leah finally finds herself in Europe owning a lovely bookshop. The longer they stay there, the more they adapt to their new life, a life without Robert. But every now and then, he shows up again. They see him in a picture, they imagine having crossed him in the streets. But: is he even still alive?

The book sounded so lovely that I had to read it. A bookstore in Paris, a kind of extraordinary love story, the frequent allusion to Albert Lampoisse’s short film “The Red Balloon” – these are the perfect ingredients for a great feel-good bitter-sweet story. Yet, it did not completely catch me.

Somehow there were too many breaks in the story, I never knew exactly where it was going too and thus it turned a bit lengthy at times. The characters unfortunately lived too much in the books they read and films they watched to ever find themselves really in Paris and therefore the charm of the town got completely lost.

I liked the way the protagonist and her struggle with the situation are portrayed. Even though I think the construction of their relationship is too awkward to be authentic, the moment of not knowing what happened to her husband and being responsible for two teenagers while coping with your own emotions – that’s all but easy. Figuring out how to survive might lead to extreme decision like going to Paris and starting anew.

All in all, there were lovely passages, but to sum it up: it is too long for the story that’s been told.

Charming story with a touch of mystery and midlife angst.

This is a novel is about coping with loss and taking a leap of faith by following a dream.

Leah is devastated after her husband's disappearance. Soon after, Leah takes her daughters for a visit to Paris and ends up staying and managing a bookstore.

The premise sounds wonderful but I did not enjoy this novel as much as I expected. The main character goes on and on about The Red Balloon movie (and the book) and also about the Madeline's children's stories. After extensively describing them she returns again to it several times in the book.

Also, the pace is very slow. I had expectations this novel would have some mystery to it, and it does but I think the novel can be better categorized as women's fiction. After reading over 51% of it I found myself skimming. I finished it expecting the pace would pick up later on but it didn't.

Overall, it was ok. As much as I love reading about Paris and bookstores the story could not hold my interest.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via Netgalley

Susan Fisher
‏ @librariantalkin
Apr 10
Just finished "Paris by the Book" by @liamcallanan So very good. Read this book and enjoy Paris too.

I really wanted to love this book, this writer is from my hometown and the Milwaukee bookshop he references is also close to me. I would classify this more as women’s fiction than anything else as the mystery is slow moving and is only part of the story.

Leah and Robert Eady had what started out as a good marriage with bright prospects for the future. They have two daughters, Daphne and Ellie, now young teens, and both parents are quite involved with the girls. Robert is a writer who had one bestseller but has been struggling for years to produce another. He goes on what he calls “write aways” which start to become longer and longer periods of time away from home. Leah is starting to have less and less patience with him and his habit of leaving short notes or clues as to where he is going. It soon becomes apparent that the marriage is headed for trouble and finally Robert disappears for what seems like forever. After the police and others have searched and searched for Robert, Leah finally finds a clue in a cereal box which leads to finding tickets for them all to go to Paris. With the family somewhat in shambles Leah decides to uproot the family, go to Paris and eventually stay. She becomes the owner of a bookstore, not unlike the one described in an unfinished manuscript of Robert’s which comes to surface.

We are witness to the struggles that Leah and the girls have in Paris. At first it is difficult but the girls in particular seem to take to the city, the language, the whole different feeling that they are experiencing from their life in Milwaukee, youth usually acclimate quicker than adults in my experience.

Both Leah and Robert are obsessed with the “Madeline” series of children’s books as well as a film called “The Red Balloon”. I am familiar with the books but not the film.

Problems I had with the book. I found the plot very slow moving and somewhat choppy with references back and force from past to present that did not flow well. The continued references to the Madeline books and The Red Balloon became tiresome and felt overdone. I didn’t really feel a close connection to Leah, I enjoyed the point of views from the girls more interesting and caring.

This is a good story, particularly if you love Paris, which unfortunately I’ve never visited. The writing is good but as I mentioned slow moving, it took me several days to get through it because I kept putting it down. At 70% I started to enjoy the novel more as things finally started happening and the last quarter of the book is probably my favorite.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley, thank you.

Also now posting to Barnes and Noble

I did not finish this book. Way too convoluted and hard to follow.

Book lovers will love 'Paris by the Book'
The premise of “Paris by the Book” fascinated me. When Leah and Robert first met, they had an instant connection through their favorite children’s books. She “The Red Balloon” by Lamorisse, but her obsession was more with the film than the book. He, a children’s book author: the entire Madeline series by Bemelmans. They were both totally enamored with Paris. He promised they would go together someday.

Their marriage was very impromptu, she more certain about the commitment than him. He had a tendency to disappear for hours, days perhaps even weeks, needing time alone to gather his thoughts for his writing. But then he disappeared for much longer—leaving Leah and their two daughters in emotional limbo. Because of his history of disappearing, the police aren’t really concerned about looking for him, so his family spends that year wondering if he is alive or dead, and if he will ever return to them.

When Leah discovers he had purchased tickets for the family to fly to Paris just before his disappearance, she decides that’s where they will find him. So off to Paris they go, and end up buying into and running a small bookstore. They make a life for themselves but never give up the search. Leah might frustrate some, but I found her hesitation and uncertainty quite natural. One wonders if she is sad or angry about Robert’s disappearance, and as the difficulties of the marriage are revealed, why does she even care?

Author Liam Callanan writes beautiful, lyrical descriptions. His plot moves slowly, but for me, that was perfect. I wanted time to savor the sights, sounds and people of Paris. I went on the emotional journey as the threesome independently had sightings of Robert—a profile, the back of a head, a familiar gait—convinced he was there, wondering when he would actually approach them. As you can imagine, it is an emotional roller coaster for them, on top of the normal struggles between a single mother and two teenage daughters.


The story is bittersweet, but, in the end, it is a love story—about the love of books.

“Every book in a bookstore is a fresh beginning. Every book is the next iteration of a very old story. Every bookstore, therefore, is like a safe-deposit box for civilization. Like that cave in Norway ... where they bank the seeds that will save the planet: deep in my bookstore, we stock those same seeds.”

.This is a story of a family that is trying to find what is missing in Paris. Robert, husband, father, and author has disappeared and the only clue is hidden tickets to Paris. The family travels there and establishes themselves in a bookshop as they search for him. As time passes so does what they are looking for. This book never really held my attention

Robert Eady is a novelist, an unconventional one who takes writing breaks from real life and his responsibilities, leaving his wife, Leah, to pay the bills and take care of the kids. The marriage is faltering, but Leah is used to Robert’s disappearances—he’s an artist, after all—so she doesn’t think much of it when he doesn’t come back from a run one day, even though he didn’t leave a note like he usually does.

Until the disappearance stretches out into weeks without a single word or trace of Robert. The police think he’s dead. Then Leah finds six letters on a scrap of paper hidden inside a cereal box and realizes Robert had bought tickets for all of them to visit Paris—the city he and Leah had talked about since the day they met.

Leah and the girls head to Paris in search of Robert and end up co-owners of an English-language bookstore. The girls claim they see Robert everywhere, but Leah thinks he’s gone…until she finds one of his books in the store window, I’m sorry scrawled inside. Is Robert dead? Are the girls really seeing him? Leah struggles to untangle the truth as she builds a life in Paris.

This book sounded like it would be a great read. The execution, however…this was very slow-paced. Very. I found Robert completely selfish and unlikeable, to the point of active dislike. Leah is in denial about everything for most of the book. (Actually, make that “all” the book.) I finished this, but the disconnect from Leah and my dislike of Robert made this merely a so-so read.

Let me start by saying that I really wanted to love this book. I love Paris and I love books about books/bookstores. It seemed like it would be right up my alley, but in the end I had mixed feelings about it. I loved that it was kind of a love letter to Paris -- one of my favorite cities. The story line about a family on a quest to find their missing husband/father -- not so much. I found Leah and Robert's marriage to be annoying and kept thinking, "Good riddance -- why are they looking for him? They are much better off without him." I just didn't get it. The story line about buying a bookstore in Paris and adjusting to a new life there, however, I enjoyed.

When writer Robert Eady disappears, his wife, Leah, and daughters, Ellie and Daphne, don’t know if he’s alive or dead. I did want to find out the mystery of what happened to him, but unfortunately, the writing style made me not care enough to actually finish this book.

Leah’s narration is incredibly odd. She’ll skim over months and months. Events will abruptly happen. There is just no continuity in the narrative, and it bugged the heck out of me. Leah and her daughters go to Paris to find clues about what happened to Robert, and Paris is a city I love. Still, even the wonderful setting wasn’t enough for me to get passed the 30 percent mark in this novel.

Paris, France, is often viewed as a magical place in fiction, and with good reason. As the hangout of Hemingway and Fitzgerald among others, it is a place where a great deal of English and French literature has been born. Heck, there’s even a popular English language bookstore called Shakespeare and Company (and I know of a guy who worked there and — surprise, surprise — published a book about his time spent there) which just goes to show how popular the place is among readers. You can now add Liam Callanan’s marvelous Paris by the Book to the small mountain of French literature written by Anglophone Americans. The story is one of disappearances. Leah Eady’s husband vanishes into thin air one day by going out of his house in Milwaukee and never returning. Both Leah and Robert, the missing husband, had a hankering for all things Parisian: Robert loves (or loved, past tense) the Madeline books by Ludwig Bemelmans, while Leah takes a hankering to the French film The Red Balloon. (And, it must be said, its companion book.)

Thus, after a series of clues following his disappearance, Leah — refusing to believe that her husband perished somehow — and their two teenaged daughters, Ellie and Daphne, wind up living in Paris, believing that Robert is there. Much searching takes place, but not before Leah winds up owning and running an English language bookstore that specialises in dead authors. Essentially, Leah, Ellie and Daphne become good Parisian citizens, taking part in various tragicomic adventures as they scour the city for clues as to where the missing dad/husband may have gone. However, Leah winds up becoming friendly with a black American man. Can romance be far behind? Can Leah get over the fact that her husband may not be coming back? And so this tale unfolds.

Paris by the Book is, of course, a sopping love letter to the titular city. It is portrayed as grimy and ancient, but there’s an undercurrent of eclectic people who give the place character. It is also very much a book about literature and film, which I’ll get to in more detail in a moment. (Plus, the Robert-Leah romance begins when the former discovers that the latter has walked out of a bookstore without paying for her copy of The Red Balloon.) It is also simply a crackling good tale — one that has its shares of tragedies and missed opportunities. Callanan tells the story from Leah’s perspective, and I would say that he nails the female voice — a woman’s exhaustion at being a single parent, the feeling of being lovelorn for her missing husband despite their growing differences before the disappearance — quite perfectly. In fact, I had to check that this wasn’t a semi-autobiographical tale, because the tone is quite conversational and seems to cut too close to the feeling of being real.

If Paris by the Book has a problem, it is — a bit of a spoiler is here, so maybe jump a paragraph if you plan on reading this book — that it never fully reveals the reasons why Robert left, aside from divulging some hints of a fractured relationship towards the end of the novel. And, of course, we never really do get a picture why Leah would still be in love with her husband after the abandonment. Overall, though, I found Paris by the Book to be eerily similar to John Green’s young adult novel Paper Towns, which also featured a disappearing love interest. It’s just that the former is more targeted to adult readers, but still retains the feeling of being magical that Green’s novel mostly captures.

Because this is a book about art and its effects on the human condition, be prepared for a lot of name-dropping — books are mentioned that may serve as a jumping off point for deepening one’s reading, which is always a plus in my book. (Plus, Callanan gives a shout out to two Canadian authors — Carol Shields and Alice Munro — so this Canuck gives Callanan many laurels for doing so.) Essentially, Paris by the Book is a thoughtful book about the impact of films and books on us as human beings, and how we carry around pieces of them in the detritus of our lives. In a way, the narratives of the works of fiction that are brought up in this book are mirrors to the characters’ lives. In a sense, Leah is liberated by many red balloons and floats up among the city by novel’s end — not literally, of course, but the balloons would be symbolized by the friendships she has made in the city that have carried her through.

However, if you’re not looking for quite that much depth in your fiction, Paris by the Book also works as a straight-ahead read — one that I suspect women will be enraptured by, given the preponderance of female characters in this book. It’s a bit of a page turner once you get going, as its distinctly European flavour is quite intoxicating and charming. There are niggling things, such as one character bouncing back rather quickly from a case of meningitis (which can kill), but, overall, the novel sustains. I came to like these characters, despite their obvious flaws, as they seemed good natured enough. There’s a melancholic tow to the book, but it’s a kind of happy-sadness. The women in this novel prove their resilience and their ability to adapt to massive changes in their lives, and that gives the work courage, heft and assuredness.

Put it this way, if you’re looking for a great story, then look no further. But if you’re looking to go off the deep end with your fiction in terms of thematics, you might be well pleased by the quality of the book. I wouldn’t peg it quite as literary fiction, because there’s a breezy style to the writing, but I imagined it being made into a small, art-house film. Paris by the Book is a charming novel about fractures in relationships and the lengths we’ll go to to repair those relationships, and it’s a great lazy Sunday afternoon read. Anyone who likes books about books will surely get their fill here. This is magic almost at its very best, and if you don’t shed a tear by the time the covers are closed for the final time, you don’t have an ounce of the French in your soul. This book is, simply put, wonderful stuff. Plus s’il vous plait.

Leah Eady sets off to Paris to "find" her husband who frequently disappears. What she finds is romance, magic and the power of family. This book is cleverly written with many referrals to real books (The Red Balloon, Madeline).

I received this book free of charge from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

The book starts out with Leah following men in Paris. I was like "What the heck is going on??"We soon find out that her husband, Robert left Leah and their daughters in Milwaukee. Vanished without a trace.. or is there. They find plane tickets to Paris in a box of cereal that Robert liked and Leah and the girls go there.

Soon Leah finds some clues that her husband may be alive. Or is he dead? I don't want to give too much away.

The book started out slow but I soon got into it and wanted to know what was going to happen next. The author did a good job of transporting me to Paris.

I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to request a galley of this book. I'm guessing mainly because of the description and the fact that one of the characters is a writer and another, a bookseller. I have to say though that the author Liam Callanan writes beautiful prose that has a lyrical quality to it and it shows in this book. Unfortunately, for me at least, that is the only good point to this book.

Though the prose has that beautiful, lyrical quality to it, the pacing is extremely slow, it's not really what I would call a mystery and the meandering prose going back and forth between Milwaukee and Paris just about killed me to the point where I almost decided to not finish the book. But I did and wished I didn't waste any more of my time finishing this book because the characters, especially the wife, Leah, was quite annoying and a bit flat. The two daughters, Ellie and Daphne, also need more depth to them and I felt like Declan's character was placed there just to stir the pot a bit. Eleanor's character is okay in the sense that she's the most practical of them all though still a bit flat, and as for Robert Eady himself, well, I have to say that the little bit that I knew about him, I didn't truly like. He's selfish, self-centered and I've had enough of his drama.

Now, if you are a big fan of The Little Paris Bookshop and are hoping to get the same experience, stay away from this book because you will be sadly disappointed. However, if you want to read about what others think of The Red Balloon or about Madeline or about snippets of Lamorrisse' life and works as well as of Bemelman's then this might be worth your time.

Leah's husband Robert often goes off on his own to write. When he goes and does not return, Leah and her two daughters, Daphne and Ellie, put clues together that encourage them to look for him in Paris. There they find a new mode of living and blossom in unexpected ways. The plot felt plodding at times, and seemed to move very slow, but there were interesting insights into life in Paris.

When her husband Robert disappears without a trace, Leah takes their two daughters to Paris, using the tickets he had purchased for them. After weeks of searching and not finding, Leah and her daughters forge a new life for themselves in Paris, living above the bookstore that Leah now owns and runs.
I loved this story. I loved how Callanan evoked Paris as well as the beloved classic films and books that reverberate through the novel. The characters are believable, so dimensioned and nuanced that they feel like people I know. What they do and how they do it also makes perfect sense. Paris itself plays an important role, beyond a good setting all the way to a wise/unknown/knowing/mysterious/beguiling character that evokes its own magic and change for everyone.
As a writer, I was astounded with the language, with the way that the weather, moods, and neighborhoods are shared and become as real and experienced as anything else. Shifts are brilliantly done: from past to present and points of view of the past that led to the strange, ill-defined present that Leah inhabits without resolution of her husband's death or desertion. One that has me still in its thrall is where Leah looks at photographs from a family party and sees for the first time how happy everyone was, for real, without the scrim of memory and interpretation of the past through the at-times unbearable present.
I read this book while I was in Paris, felt like I could find the bookstore and meet with Leah, enjoy the idiosyncratic shop (Shakespeare & Co doesn't come close). Callanan faithfully evokes an incredible city in a story that could be set nowhere else.
My only -- and very small quibble -- is a description of how invisible Leah has become, 42 and middle-aged, to anyone, particularly men. No woman is more seen than she is in Paris -- definitely not anywhere in the United States, especially not in the Midwest. Age doesn't come into being seen as it does elsewhere. Woman is seen, appreciated at any age, maybe not as long, but she is definitely seen.
Of all the books I have read in the past year, this is the one that stays with me most powerfully -- and I am so happy with the experience!