First published 1982
On a foggy morning in 1934, Elvira Western walks away from her comfortable London life and her husband Paul to meet her young lover in Paris. Oliver Fenton, an passionate English student, awaits her arrival. What begins as a romantic escape quickly dissolves into aimless days spent in Saint-Germain-des-Prés cafés. Elvira finds herself surrounded by dissolute journalists, eccentric bourgeois characters, and a penniless cabaret dancer. The group drifts from champagne flutes to aperitifs, from romantic disappointments to surreal nighttime encounters. As the days pass, Elvira begins to question her decision to leave London. She starts to miss her life with Paul, who attempts to win her back. Set against the electric, dreamlike atmosphere of interwar Paris, this romantic drama explores the conflicting desires of a woman whose intelligence, playfulness, and fickleness make love complicated.
Genres: fiction, drama, romance, literary-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
Setting: London, Paris, Saint-Germain-des-Prés
Period: 1934
392 pages · Paperback · Virago Press Ltd