The Beasts of Paris - Stef Penney

 

I’ve read the Tenderness of Wolves and I was blown away by the sheer power of storytelling and this recent novel from Stef Penny has done nothing to dilute that opinion. Boy, she can spin a good yarn.

‘Anne is a former patient from the women’s asylum La Salpetriere, trying to carve out a new life for herself in a world that doesn’t understand her. Newcomer Lawrence is desperate to develop his talent as a photographer and escape the restrictions of his puritanical Canadian upbringing. Ellis, an army surgeon, has lived through the horror of the American Civil War and will do anything to avoid another bloodbath.

Each keeps company with the restless beasts of Paris’s famous menagerie, home and prison to the glamorous predators that draw visitors from all walks of life. Yet these fearsome animals are innocents alongside the looming dogs of war.

In a city under siege through one, terrible, freezing winter, three characters meet, fight their demons, rebel and lose their hearts in this dazzling historical epic of love and survival.’

And so the siege of Paris in 1870 is the backdrop for this sizzling tale of love and idealism and like the most impressive of fireworks starts slowly and explodes into an astonishing, breathtaking conclusion. The concept and breadth of the novel is ambitious and the volume of historical research required to create such a palpable and believable scenario is beyond impressive. Belief is the cement of historical fiction and I never doubted for a moment that I was in the heart of a Paris torn apart by siege and revolution. The plot is vast and tight for the most part and weaving their way within its labyrinth are Lawrence, Ellis and Anne. Lawrence and Ellis are not native Parisians or even Frenchmen. They bring their North American culture to the narrative. Anne, an inmate of the Saltpetriere hospital when the novel begins, is enigmatic and mesmerised by a tiger in the Paris menagerie. Is that where the book gets its title? The Beasts of Paris? I love an enigmatic title, and this one can be taken whichever way you like. The lesser characters are really not lesser at all so good are the characterisations.

There are no punches pulled. Conflict means casualties and there’s plenty of that for Ellis the surgeon. Desperate times provoke desperate behaviours sometimes in the most surprising of people. Tragedy is never far away. All three main characters have their challenges and I wouldn’t want to give too much away for the potential reader, but there are surprises and redemptions, hope even as the story progresses and hurtles towards its culmination.

This is one of those books where you can’t wait to find out what happens but you also dread coming to the end of it you so want the experience to continue. It is superlative writing and there was something so refreshing about somebody who is telling a story with a beginning a middle and end just like we’re told to do! There’s no attempt to be clever or different, no messing with structure or genre, not that there is anything wrong with alternatives but it’s good sometimes to just snuggle down and read a damn, good story.

My thanks to Ana McLaughlin at Quercus Books for a gifted copy.