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Paris Bound

by David James

238 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-0490; ISBN 1-55369-677-8; US$23.50, C$28.95, EUR18.90, £13.10

Paris Bound is at once a 'road novel,' an offbeat love story and a mystery novel. It should appeal to a wide range of readers, both male and female, especially those who have tasted the pain and pleasure of culture-clashed romance in foreign parts.

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about the book      Praise for Paris Bound      about the author      sample excerpts      catalogue info

About the Book Paris Bound tells the story of two disparate lovers, Professor Roy Musgrave and his student Nadia Benbouzid, who make the trip from Morocco to Paris, staying at camp sites, a pension in Burgos and finally a hotel in Paris. Their escapades include almost running out of petrol in the Rif and smuggling out of Morocco not only contraband currency but a Moslem girl. Only Nadia's charms and initiative save them from disaster. In the intimacy of tent sharing, their relationship deepens, each seeing in the other the answer to their future happiness, for Roy's divorce is nearly through and Nadia is eminently available. Moreover, each seems to have exactly what the other needs for completion, his scholarly prowess complementing her youthful zest, his stability her daring and so on. In Spain, however, he begins to weary a little of the girl's appetite for fine clothes and jewellery, especially when she returns from shopping expeditions laden with trinkets. Who pays for them? Is it Roy? Is it Nadia? Is it someone else? Are the goods in some way wheedled or 'won' from shopkeepers? She refuses to answer and is insulted by his interrogations. After a quarrel, in which Nadia is overcome by jealousy of Roy's wife and miffed by his refusal to contemplate becoming Moslem, Roy walks out of the Paris hotel to see a vintage French movie, about which Nadia is less than keen. He returns from a surreal experience on the Paris Métro, in which he meets his guru Marcel Proust, to a shocking reality in the hotel.

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Praise for Paris Bound

'One can't read even the first page without getting the feel that...this is a writer one would like to meet and talk to.'

- Bill Stanton, Writers Tutorial

'A Novel of real quality and substance, one that's intriquing, funny and, finally, very moving.... The cadences are often quite reminiscent of D.H. Lawrence (and none the worse for that). [The] prose has an effortless organic fluency, with unobtrusive but affecting internal rhythms, e.g. As so often during the past year, but now possibly for the last time, Keith seemed to be waiting for some last word - of advice or consolation - before he retired for the night to his bare room with its empty mildewed cupboards.'

- Robert Lambolle, Reading and Writing

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About the Author David James was born in London and has spent much of his life teaching abroad. He attended universities in London, British Columbia and Leeds to obtain degrees in English Language and Literature, English and American Literature and Linguistics and Phonetics. He has held school, college and university teaching posts in Britain, the United States, North Africa and the Gulf. He has been published in such diverse places as The Times Literary Supplement, Essays in Criticism, The Brontë Society Transactions, The Thoreau Journal Quarterly, The Journal of Narrative Technique, Didaskolas, The Use of English, Children's Literature in Education, Peace and Freedom, Krax and Quartos. In 1977 he edited Eight American Stories for Longman. His first novel, Boy Among Men appeared in 1988. A third novel, A Dry Kingdom, a mystery story set in the Gulf, is in its final stages. David James is now a full time writer of fiction. He has a grown-up family and lives in the United Kingdom in Sutton, Surrey with his second wife and two younger children.

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Sample Excerpts

from Chapter 1: Spoken English

from Chapter 11: Paris By Night

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Catalogue Information

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