June 26, 2024
The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby
5 Paris Readers Circle members will be selected at random to win a copy
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Juliette Willoughby, an heiress and Surrealist painter, ran away with her lover, a well known Surrealist painter, to Paris in 1938. She created a masterpiece, “Self Portrait as Sphinx” which won acclaim and outshone her lover’s work. Tragically, both of them died in a fire, along with her painting. From then on she was nothing more than a footnote to his story in art history. Fifty years later, two Cambridge art students stumbled upon clues that maybe the stories weren’t true. They became embroiled in mysteries about Juliette’s family, university links to those mysteries, and dramatically, a murder on campus which might be somehow related to the mysteries they were trying to solve. The novel weaves intricate, and seemingly unrelated, plots together, and keeps you enthralled and guessing throughout, totally immersed in the art world spanning the continents. It is so immersive that you are left wondering if Juliette Willoughby was real, or just a figure of the author’s imagination.-Patsy Diekmann
Ellery Lloyd
Ellery Lloyd is the pseudonym for the London-based husband and wife team of Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos whose last novel, instant New York Times bestseller The Club, a “smart, stylish, and savage” (People Magazine), was a Reese’s Book Club pick. The former deputy editor of Grazia Middle East, content director of Elle(UK), and editorial director at Soho House, Collette studied History of Art at Trinity College, Cambridge, and has worked in Sydney, Dubai, and London. She has written for the Guardian, the Telegraph, and the Sunday Times. Paul is the author of two previous novels, Welcome to the Working Weekand Every Day Is Like Sunday. He is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Greenwich.They are also the authors of People Like Her.
Readers Comments
Quote by Stefan Zweig from the biography Impossible Exile published in 2021. The quote dates from in 1926 when Zweig was at the height of his popularity. It's a fascinating biography of a gifted man.
By then he was telling friends that he felt perpetually exhausted and "played out," aware that he was living in a lull between disasters, part of a "beaten generation ... fed with hatred, purged again with terror, attacked by stupidity, our spirit distracted by the senseless fireworks of money games. How can we create something complete ... based on peace, when our powers are so obsessed with externals?"–Paul Myers, Paris
Stefan Zweig
Surrounded by the leading literary lights of the epoch, Stefan Zweig draws a vivid and intimate account of his life and travels through Vienna, Paris, Berlin, and London, touching on the very heart of European culture. His passionate, evocative prose paints a stunning portrait of an era that danced brilliantly on the edge of extinction.
This new translation by award-winning Anthea Bell captures the spirit of Zweig's writing in arguably his most revealing work.
Largely unappreciated in America his work is aways available in European bookstores and as the world as we know it is tilting toward extinction it is a good time to read it.–Terrance
Coming tomorrow
Full of simple Mediterranean recipes perfect for weeknight cooking and effortless weekend meals alike, Greekish is inspired by beloved author Georgina Hayden's Greek-Cypriot roots and travels. After a lifetime of collecting favorite dishes that are easy to throw together, bursting with flavor, and sure to be cooked on repeat in countless kitchens, Georgina has homed in on the best ways to balance fresh, hearty ingredients with traditional methods-always keeping them easy, delicious, and balanced.
Food & Wine Thursday
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Being an eternal night owl, I frequently find myself scrolling through emails as your newsletter is hot off the press in Paris around 1:00am CA time. Thank you, Terrance, for your diligent research and skillful writing which provides the connection for us Francophiles to live vicariously through your stories and adventures.
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