The Paris Hours

　　花都巴黎最美好的年代，猶如對普魯斯特的敬意。

　　那時代的名人，有歌手約瑟芬貝克(Josephine Baker)、作家楚格斯坦(Gertrude Stein)、作曲家莫里斯拉威爾(Maurice Ravel)、莎士比亞書店創辦人西維亞貝慈(Sylvia Beach)還有海明威(Ernest and Pauline Hemingway)。作者巧妙地讓當時的風雲人物，融入小說，一同尋找心靈的歸屬。

　　故事發生在一九二七年的一個夏日，整整二十四小時，寫出四個人的心路歷程。他們都在苦難與寂寞中掙扎，面對他們的失去與各自的秘密。

　　索倫(Souren Balakian)，以前在土耳其作一名偶師，十年前被驅離，逃來巴黎，如今在盧森堡花園，表演偶戲秀，這期間仍然與過往的夢靨相互對抗，難以揮去。

　　傑洛米(Guillaume Blanc)為了逃離債主，躲來巴黎。他生活在赤貧的環境，每日帶著宿醉醒來，面對無望的人生。他卻突然決定與他十年前與一位舞者意外生下的女兒相見。

　　患有失眠症的記者，強保羅(Jean-Paul Maillard)，正面對戰後的生理與心理瘡疤，他透過聽喬治蓋希文(George Gershwin)的音樂來療癒苦楚。

　　卡蜜兒(Camille Clermont)帶著她的女兒瑪莉(Marie)，來給她的前雇主普魯斯特(Marcel Proust)獻花。

　　四位主角，交織在一起，虛構與歷史事實，混雜一處。逐漸地認識他們的痛苦與悲劇的誕生。未完的劇情，給讀者更多想像。究竟在花都，會發生怎樣的故事？且看大時代下的小人物，共同的哀愁與慾望。

One day in the City of Lights. One night in search of lost time.

Paris between the wars teems with artists, writers, and musicians, a glittering crucible of genius. But amidst the dazzling creativity of the city's most famous citizens, four regular people are each searching for something they've lost.

Camille was the maid of Marcel Proust, and she has a secret: when she was asked to burn her employer's notebooks, she saved one for herself. Now she is desperate to find it before her betrayal is revealed. Souren, an Armenian refugee, performs puppet shows for children that are nothing like the fairy tales they expect. Lovesick artist Guillaume is down on his luck and running from a debt he cannot repay--but when Gertrude Stein walks into his studio, he wonders if this is the day everything could change. And Jean-Paul is a journalist who tells other people's stories, because his own is too painful to tell. When the quartet's paths finally cross in an unforgettable climax, each discovers if they will find what they are looking for.

Told over the course of a single day in 1927, The Paris Hours takes four ordinary people whose stories, told together, are as extraordinary as the glorious city they inhabit.

A native of England, Alex George read law at Oxford University and worked for eight years as a corporate lawyer in London and Paris. He has lived in the Midwest of the United States for the last sixteen years. He is the founder and director of the Unbound Book Festival, and is the owner of Skylark Bookshop, an independent bookstore in downtown Columbia, Missouri.

Alex is the author of The Paris Hours, A Good American, and Setting Free the Kites.