What An Unexpected Literary Gem!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                         Somehow, girls, my expectations were this would be the book I would toss aside, while Richard Powers' novel would be the one to enrapture me.  The joke is on me, dolls, because the reverse turned out to be true.

                                           Historical novels have changed, over time.  The lush romanticism and structural evolution over time has been abandoned for hard hitting political realism in ours.

                                             The funny thing is, as I said, after reading Lara Croft's "The Secrets We Kept," I thought about re-reading "Doctor Zhivago."   Well, if you read "The Parisian," darlings, it is almost the same.  The protagonist is Midhat, an Indian (as in India) who goes to Paris--hence the title-to become a doctor, and study philosophy.  But, before you can say Mary Shelly, he is back in his hometown, running his father's textile business amid difficulties with his chosen wife, an obsession with a French woman he still carries a torch for, and political strife between India, Syria, and Palestine.

                                                To think this is Hammad's debut!  It is one of the more remarkable I have come across, and so engrossing I could barely stir from my chair while reading to the the end, which is on a poetic note, and sums things up beautifully.  This last word also describes the quality of Hammad's prose, which is driven both narratively and historically, with much political intrigue thrown in.

                                                 "The Parisian" took me by surprise.  Had it come out this year, it would have made my Ten Best, for sure.  As is, this is a book for the ages, or, at the very least, years to come!

                                                    A must for those craving good literary fiction!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!