The Parisian

As World War I shatters families, destroys friendships and kills lovers, a young Palestinian dreamer sets out to find himself.

Midhat Kamal navigates his way across a fractured world, from the Middle East to the dinner tables of Montpellier and a newly tumultuous Paris. He discovers that everything is fragile: love turns to loss, friends become enemies, and everyone is looking for a place to belong.

The Parisian has received widespread critical acclaim.  Zadie Smith praised Hammad’s debut novel, stating that it is a ‘sublime reading experience’ that is ‘delicate, restrained, surpassingly intelligent, uncommonly poised and truly beautiful’.  Nathan Englander referred to The Parisian as a ‘lushly imagined, beautifully written, expansive powerhouse of a debut’, while Alessandra Codinha from Vogue heralded the novel as a ‘sumptuous epic about the enduring nature of love’ and a ‘novel you sink into’. Bret Anthony Johnson stated that The Parisian is ‘wise, ambitious and lavishly rewarding’ and is an ‘absorbing story of war and identity, of love and independence, of hope and history’, while the New York Times claimed that Hammad’s debut ‘calls to mind a 19th century novel’.

Content supplied by Penguin Books Australia