
The Paris Novel
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Narrated by:
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Kiiri Sandy
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By:
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Ruth Reichl
About this listen
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “mouthwatering” (The New York Times) adventure through the food, art, and fashion scenes of 1980s Paris—from the bestselling author of Save Me the Plums and Delicious!
“An enchanting and irresistible feast . . . As with a perfect meal in the world’s most magical city, I never wanted this sublime novel to end.”—Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, author of Good Company
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Saveur, Food & Wine, Bookreporter, The Charlotte Observer
Stella reached for an oyster, tipped her head, and tossed it back. It was cool and slippery, the flavor so briny it was like diving into the ocean. Oysters, she thought. Where have they been all my life?
When her estranged mother dies, Stella is left with an unusual inheritance: a one-way plane ticket and a note reading “Go to Paris.” Stella is hardly cut out for adventure; a traumatic childhood has kept her confined to the strict routines of her comfort zone. But when her boss encourages her to take time off, Stella resigns herself to honoring her mother’s last wishes.
Alone in a foreign city, Stella falls into old habits, living cautiously and frugally. Then she stumbles across a vintage store, where she tries on a fabulous Dior dress. The shopkeeper insists that this dress was meant for Stella and for the first time in her life Stella does something impulsive. She buys the dress—and embarks on an adventure.
Her first stop: the iconic brasserie Les Deux Magots, where Stella tastes her first oysters and then meets an octogenarian art collector who decides to take her under his wing. As Jules introduces Stella to a veritable who’s who of the Paris literary, art, and culinary worlds, she begins to understand what it might mean to live a larger life.
As weeks—and many decadent meals—go by, Stella ends up living as a “tumbleweed” at famed bookstore Shakespeare & Company, uncovers a hundred-year-old mystery in a Manet painting, and discovers a passion for food that may be connected to her past. A feast for the senses, this novel is a testament to living deliciously, taking chances, and finding your true home.
©2024 Ruth Reichl (P)2024 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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“Reichl['s] . . . writing reads like a dish you want to savor, slowly chewing each perfectly chosen word as she describes the distinct experience of eating ortolan for the first time or sipping a red wine that tastes like ‘liquid rubies.’”—Eater
“A delicious feast for the senses, taking the reader on an enchanting journey through the city of love, and following Stella’s adventure into a bolder, more beautiful life.”—Oprah Daily
“[E]nticing . . . Reichl keeps the wine—and mouthwatering prose—flowing. . . . When a waiter drops an extra dessert on the table, better not send it back to the kitchen.”—The New York Times
Editorial Review
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When Condé Nast offered Ruth Reichl the top position at America’s oldest epicurean magazine, she declined. She was a writer, not a manager, and had no inclination to be anyone’s boss. Yet Reichl had been reading Gourmet since she was eight; it had inspired her career. How could she say no? This is the story of a former Berkeley hippie entering the corporate world and worrying about losing her soul. It is the story of the moment restaurants became an important part of popular culture, a time when the rise of the farm-to-table movement changed, forever, the way we eat.
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-
Story
Garlic and Sapphires is Ruth Reichl's riotous account of the many disguises she employs to dine anonymously. There is her stint as Molly Hollis, a frumpy blond with manicured nails and an off-beige Armani suit that Ruth takes on when reviewing Le Cirque. The result: her famous double review of the restaurant: First she ate there as Molly; and then as she was coddled and pampered on her visit there as Ruth, New York Times food critic.
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Read engagingly by Bernadette Dunne
- By Nicole on 11-16-05
By: Ruth Reichl
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Not Becoming My Mother
- Previously published as Not Becoming My Mother
- By: Ruth Reichl
- Narrated by: Ruth Reichl
- Length: 1 hr and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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In Not Becoming My Mother, Ruth Reichl embarks on a clear-eyed, openhearted investigation of her mother's life, piecing together the journey of a woman she comes to realize she never really knew. Looking to her mother's letters and diaries, Reichl confronts the painful transition her mother made from a hopeful young woman to an increasingly unhappy older one and realizes the tremendous sacrifices she made to make sure her daughter's life would not be as disappointing as her own.
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Great Quick Listen - Honest and Interesting
- By Pamela on 05-23-09
By: Ruth Reichl
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Paris by the Book
- A Novel
- By: Liam Callanan
- Narrated by: Kim Bubbs
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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When eccentric novelist Robert Eady abruptly vanishes, he leaves behind his wife, Leah, their daughters, and, hidden in an unexpected spot, plane tickets to Paris. Hoping to uncover clues - and her husband - Leah sets off for France with her girls. Upon their arrival, she discovers an unfinished manuscript, one Robert had been writing without her knowledge...and that he had set in Paris. The Eady girls follow the path of the manuscript to a small, floundering English-language bookstore whose weary proprietor is eager to sell. Leah finds herself accepting the offer on the spot.
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Mused,answered,laughed...
- By Linda Ottey on 05-02-18
By: Liam Callanan
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The French Ingredient
- Making a Life in Paris One Lesson at a Time: A Memoir
- By: Jane Bertch
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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When Jane Bertch was seventeen, her mother took her on a graduation trip to Paris. Thrilled to use her high school French, Jane found her halting attempts greeted with withering condescension by every waiter and shopkeeper she encountered. At the end of the trip, she vowed she would never return.
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I waited for months for this and I'm so bored
- By Bohemian on 04-13-24
By: Jane Bertch
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L'Appart
- The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home
- By: David Lebovitz
- Narrated by: Graham Halstead
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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When David Lebovitz began the project of updating his apartment in his adopted home city, he never imagined he would encounter so much inexplicable red tape while contending with perplexing work ethic and hours. Lebovitz maintains his distinctive sense of humor with the help of his partner, Romain, peppering this renovation story with recipes from his Paris kitchen.
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A Paris Sans Delights
- By Jenny Jenkins on 02-15-18
By: David Lebovitz
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A Season for That
- Lost and Found in the Other Southern France
- By: Steve Hoffman
- Narrated by: Steve Hoffman
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Steve Hoffman is a perfectly comfortable middle-aged Minnesotan man who has always been desperately, pretentiously in love with France, more specifically with the idea of France. To follow that love, he and his family move, nearly at random, to the small, rural, scratchy-hot village of Autignac in the south of the country, and he immediately thinks he’s made a terrible mistake.
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Genuine
- By clang on 12-22-24
By: Steve Hoffman
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Comfort Me with Apples
- More Adventures at the Table
- By: Ruth Reichl
- Narrated by: Lorelei King
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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When listeners left Ruth at the end of Tender at the Bone, she was in Berkeley, California, working as a chef at the Swallow restaurant. Comfort Me with Apples picks up in 1978; Ruth is still living in a commune with her husband, Doug, but she’s decided to put down her chef’s toque and embark on a career as a restaurant critic. After a bumpy start (at the end of her very first on-the-job dinner, her credit card is unceremoniously rejected), she is soon visiting restaurants all over the world in search of a meal to write home about.
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Ruth’s tenacity stood out !
- By Beth Shully on 02-24-25
By: Ruth Reichl
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My Kitchen Year
- 136 Recipes That Saved My Life
- By: Ruth Reichl
- Narrated by: Ruth Reichl
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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In the fall of 2009, the food world was rocked when Gourmet magazine was abruptly shuttered by its parent company. No one was more stunned by this unexpected turn of events than its beloved editor in chief, Ruth Reichl, who suddenly faced an uncertain professional future. As she struggled to process what had seemed unthinkable, Reichl turned to the one place that had always provided sanctuary. "I did what I always do when I'm confused, lonely, or frightened," she writes. "I disappeared into the kitchen."
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RR reads well
- By kgohl on 10-23-15
By: Ruth Reichl
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My (Part-Time) Paris Life
- How Running Away Brought Me Home
- By: Lisa Anselmo
- Narrated by: Lisa Anselmo
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Lisa Anselmo wraps her entire life around her mother, a strong woman who is a defining force in Lisa's life - maybe too defining. When her mother dies from breast cancer, Lisa realizes she hasn't built a life of her own and struggles to find her purpose. Who is she without her mother - and her mother's expectations? Desperate for answers, she turns to her favorite city - Paris - and impulsively buys a small apartment, refusing to play it safe for the first time.
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Way better than I needed it to be. Loved it! Get it.
- By Christopher on 08-07-17
By: Lisa Anselmo
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The Paris Express
- By: Emma Donoghue
- Narrated by: Justin Avoth
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on an 1895 disaster that went down in history when it was captured in a series of surreal, extraordinary photographs, The Paris Express is a propulsive novel set on a train packed with a fascinating cast of characters who hail from as close as Brittany and as far as Russia, Ireland, Algeria, Pennsylvania, and Cambodia.
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Outstanding narrator
- By Amazon Customer on 03-19-25
By: Emma Donoghue
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The Paris Wife
- A Novel
- By: Paula McLain
- Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet 28eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway and her life changes forever. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group—the fabled “Lost Generation”—that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.
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Narration Issues
- By Sara on 10-06-15
By: Paula McLain
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The Only Street in Paris
- Life on the Rue Des Martyrs
- By: Elaine Sciolino
- Narrated by: Elaine Sciolino
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
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Elaine Sciolino, the former Paris bureau chief of The New York Times, invites us on a tour of her favorite Parisian street, offering an homage to street life and the pleasures of Parisian living. While many cities suffer from the leveling effects of globalization, the rue des Martyrs maintains its distinct allure. On this street, the patron saint of France was beheaded and the Jesuits took their first vows.
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Not just for Paris lovers.
- By Anna on 01-18-16
By: Elaine Sciolino
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I'll Never Be French (No Matter What I Do)
- Living in a Small Village in Brittany
- By: Mark Greenside
- Narrated by: Jonathan Beville
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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When Mark Greenside - a native New Yorker living in California, political lefty, writer, and lifelong skeptic - is dragged by his girlfriend to a tiny Celtic village in Brittany at the westernmost edge of France in Finistere, or what he describes as "the end of the world," his life begins to change. In a playful, headlong style, and with enormous affection for the Bretons, Greenside shares how he makes a life for himself in a country where he doesn't speak the language or understand the culture.
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Narration and story are transportive.
- By Sandi Campbell on 01-25-22
By: Mark Greenside
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The Girl from the Grand Hotel
- A Novel
- By: Camille Aubray
- Narrated by: Mozhan Navabi
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Summer 1939. The glittering Côte d’Azur is having a particularly brilliant season, as the world’s wealthiest vacationers collide with Hollywood’s illustrious movie stars for the first-ever film festival on the French Riviera. Into this hothouse playground comes an American named Annabel Faucon. Having left a dead-end job and a broken heart back in New York, she’s escaped to a summer stint at the fabulous Grand Hotel, where her uncle is the manager.
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loved the Historical
- By Barbara on 03-02-25
By: Camille Aubray
What listeners say about The Paris Novel
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- IG
- 05-07-24
Good story, not so good reader
The story was entertaining. Takes you to Paris’ many delightful neighborhoods.. The food and wine descriptions transport you to wonderful French restaurants in Paris and around France. The discussions about art, writers and the Shakespeare Company were entertaining and enlightening. But the reader is too breathy and frequently injects unnecessary anxiety into the text with her tone. I wish she read more naturally how people actually speak.
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- Mia Caliendo
- 05-01-24
Really well done
The audiobook is so well done. The narrator pronounces French words correctly, and I think that makes the story so much more real and romantic. I enjoyed this story— descriptions of food and fashion and France, what’s not to like!
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- Patricia L. Lemlein
- 08-04-24
Wonderful story of a woman finding herself in Paris
Loved all the food descriptions and places in Paris and the interesting people and experiences Stella encounters. Very magical and beautiful.
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- judith spellman
- 08-04-24
Descriptions of Paris Made you feel like you were there
To much description of food. Could have been a little less and more character detail
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- XPA
- 05-06-24
Delightful,!
Ruth Reichl brought me there, to Paris, to the dress shops, to the restaurants, to the markets. The characters became important to me, The story became an intricate web. I love this type of book!
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- Julie Gershman
- 05-19-24
What a wonderful walk through art, food and family
An easy and wonderful read. So detailed in description that I almost feel like I could taste the food.
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- JRM
- 06-09-24
Charming
Just a really great story of self discovery. The character development and plot was great. Loved it!
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- Lipi Banerjee
- 06-01-24
Delightful!
The author takes you into a world that you want to be part of. You can taste the food in her writing and feel like you know the characters. I wanted to be transported to Paris and be Stella! Ruth Reichl is an incredible writer and I cannot thank her enough for her books! I devoured this book and couldn’t wait for the next chapter! Reading her work makes me happy! So happy!
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- Amy Maria Everett
- 09-13-24
Food & Art
Loved the history of Paris! Intricate food details! The story of Victarine & other artists. Shakespeare and co!
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- Primrose
- 11-17-24
A taste of champagne…
I absolutely loved this book. From the opening pages, the stark austerity and bustling energy of New York City set the stage perfectly, contrasting beautifully with the enchanting, magical allure of Paris. Watching Stella take small, tentative steps toward healing was both moving and inspiring. Each step she took unlocked new layers of experience and joy, drawing me deeper into her journey. This book is a celebration of resilience and self-discovery, and it left me feeling both uplifted and enchanted.
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