Paris Noir

by Aur lien Masson (Editor)

Overview

All original stories from Paris' finest authors, all translated from French.

Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each story is set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book.

Brand-new stories by: Didier Daeninckx, Jean-Bernard Pouy, Marc Villard, Chantal Pelletier, Patrick Pécherot, DOA, Hervé Prudon, Dominique Mainard, Salim Bachi, Jérôme Leroy, Laurent Martin, and Christophe Mercier.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781933354637
Publisher:	Akashic Books, Ltd.
Publication date:	11/01/2008
Series:	Akashic Noir Series
Pages:	254
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

AURÉLIEN MASSON was born in 1975 and quit academia at the age of twenty-four to take a trip around the world. After three years as an editorial assistant for la Serie Noire at Gallimard, one of France’s leading publishing companies, he became the series director. Masson is currently an editor at Les Arènes. He is the editor of Paris Noir.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: City of Lights, City of Darkness

“The Chauffeur” by Marc Villard (Les Halles)

“The Chinese Guy” by Chantal Pelletier (Ménilmontant)

“Big Brother” by Salim Bachi (Quartier Latin)

“Berthet’s Leaving” by Jérôme Leroy (Gare du Nord)

Part II: Liberation Lost

“Like a Tragedy” by Laurent Martin (Place de la Nation)

“Christmas” by Christophe Mercier (Pigalle)

“The Revenge of the Waiters” by Jean-Bernard Pouy (Le Marais)

“La Vie en Rose” by Dominique Mainard (Belleville)

Part III: Society of the Spectacle

“Rue des Degrés” by Didier Daeninckx (Porte Saint-Denis)

“Dead Memory” by Patrick Pécherot (Les Batignolles)

“????????? (Precious)” by DOA (Bastille)

“No Comprendo The Stranger” by Hervé Prudon (Rue de la Santé)

Editorial Reviews

The dank and sweaty crime scenes in Paris Noir testify to the fact that the French invented "noir."
—The New York Times

Marilyn Stasio

Rarely has the City of Light seemed grittier than in this hard-boiled short story anthology, part of Akashic's noir series that began in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. The 12 freshly penned pulp fictions by some of France's most prominent practitioners play out in a kind of darker, parallel universe to the tourist mecca; visitors cross these pages at their peril, like the hapless hunk taken captive in Chantal Pelletier's kinky "The Chinese Guy." As is usual for such volumes, the quality varies considerably among the selections made by Masson, young editor of Gallimard's Série Noire, but it's worth fast-forwarding through the few duds for direct hits like Christophe Mercier's "Christmas," the poignant tale of a pair of doomed lovers on a snowy night in Pigalle, or Dominique Mainard's "La Vie en Rose," in which a Piaf-worthy tragedy unfolds amid her old haunts in Belleville. Bull's-eye. (Nov.)

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