Paris By Starlight

Another masterpiece from Dinsdale✨ a magic Night in Paris by starlight!✨ If you like the night circus by Erin morgenstern that would definitely recommend this✨ a beautiful written story which will give you a cozy feel best for a winter read❄️✨

Robert Dinsdale grew up in North Yorkshire and currently lives in Essex. "Paris by Starlight" is his sixth book and was first published in November 2020.Isabella is twenty three years old and scrapes a living as a harpist. She grew up in the south of France and was taught to play by her father as a child. However, he disappeared from her life when she was six. She has now been in Paris for six montgs, playing the city's music halls and bars, hoping to find him. Recently, though, she's been struggling with her performances - this, in turn, is having an impact on her earnings. After stuttering through another show, a bar owner offers to pay her if he performs a service for him. A runaway girl, without a word of French, has been rummaging through the cafe's bins and sneaking into the kitchen. Tonight, she'd pushed her luck a little too far and was caught. Denis, the cafe owner, offers to pay Isabella if she delivers the child to the police.Isabella takes the pay packet but, instead of taking the child to the cops, takes her to another cafe nearby. Over a large pile of pancakes, she learns the girl is called Arina and that she lives close to Sacre Coeur. Isabella brings her home, to a tenement block that could hardly be called luxurious. There, she lives with her extended family. Only Arina's brother, Levon, is able to speak French, though the family's gramdmother is very much in charge. She is devoted to the "old ways," and treasures the Nocturne - a book that tells the history or the legends of the People, depending on your point of view. Levon's grandmother has a small garden growing on the roof of their tenement - flowers, trees, vines, even somehow, what nearly appears to be a small lake. (He believes she smuggled some seeds with her from home, though she denies it). One of the plants, a flower-by-night, is a little unusual - it shines in the dark.The family are refugees, undocumented and taken advantage of at every turn. Their home country was small, and won't be found on any map - it's now been swallowed up by the Russias. They refer to themselves simply as "the People" and, in the old days, they lived by night. When Levon's grandmother dies, Levon decides that he shall return to the old ways in her honour. The change this brings to Paris is both magical ane beautiful, as the flowers-by-night and more spread outwards.However, not everyone is happy with this change - there are peole out there who don't like refugees, immigrants and change. Having fled an invasion and the loss of their homeland, the People find themselves under attack once more.I wasn't too sure what to expect when I started "Paris by Starlight," and it took my by surprise a little. A very easily read book, though I would certainly say it's topical. It did a good job of putting a human face on those going through a very difficult situation. Definitely recommended.

This book is absolutely captivating. Robert is really good at taking hard and difficult subjects and putting them into a world like no other. An absolutely magical book.

If you’ve enjoyed any of Robert’s previous books then definitely give this a read.Once again, Robert takes a really challenging, real world issue and wraps it up in wonderful, magical, story telling. This time we’re taken into the world of war refugees who have travelled thousands of miles to find a new home.As is usual in the real world, the politicians welcome them and say all the usual things that they’re supposed to say, but in the streets there are those who need to hate and any difference to the Paris they claim as their own will not be tolerated.As with Robert’s previous stories, we also have the PTSD character, Hayk, who finds enemies around every corner.This story really takes one into the lives and issues of refugees and asylum seekers, and in some places it can be challenging for anyone with a decent heart. People, through no fault of their own have their lives torn apart, their homes destroyed, and lose loved ones and friends to the evils of war. All these people are looking for is a place to be safe and at peace with what remains of their families and friends, something too many of us take for granted.Well done, Robert.

I'd been looking forward to reading this as I found Toymakers so inventive and quite unsettling (in a good way). This novel (although inventive) does rely much more on pre-existing stock themes and for me is over romanticised - I'm half way through and I will finish it but just because you liked Toymakers don't expect to enjoy this.

An excellent read. Slightly undermined by being over long and lacking surprises, but never dull for all that. A clear call for tolerance without resorting to preaching.