Secrets of Paris
Authors: Luanne Rice
PRAISE FOR
SECRETS OF PARIS
“Rice is clearly smart, sophisticated and well-traveled.… You’re likely to recognize the many French idioms or gestures that Rice retails with wry affection.… Characters with heart; colorful vignettes from the life of Mme. de Sévigné, whose letters are excerpted at the start of each chapter; and glimpses of French neighborhoods that tourists often miss on the way to the Mona Lisa, such as Tolbiac, the Chinatown of Paris. Not just for Francophiles, this is a thinking sunbather’s beach book.”
—
The Plain Dealer
“Rice has a flair for creating bright, compelling characters. We’re drawn to them.”
—
Kirkus Reviews
“Passion and friendship get equal billing in this entertaining love story, shaded with dark undertones, from the author of
Crazy in Love
.… Lively and appealing characters … the Paris setting and themes of betrayal and forgiveness distinguish this spirited romance.”
—
Publishers Weekly
“A romantic and satisfying account of love revived.”
—
Booklist
“Light, airy, rich and tasty, Luanne Rice’s
Secrets of Paris
is like a soufflé.… It also has warmth, charm, wisdom and a great deal of heart.”
—
San Francisco Chronicle
“Once again Rice weaves a tale of modern-day life that’s hard to put down.… A novel of friendship, love, and betrayal that lets you into the minds of all the participants. It is one of those books that you don’t want to end because you want to know what happens to all of the people in it. Highly recommended.”
—
Library Journal
MORE CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR LUANNE RICE
“A rare combination of realism and romance.”
—
The New York Times Book Review
“Luanne Rice proves herself a nimble virtuoso.”
—
The Washington Post Book World
“Few writers evoke summer’s translucent days so effortlessly, or better capture the bittersweet ties of family love.”
—
Publishers Weekly
“Ms. Rice shares Anne Tyler’s ability to portray offbeat, fey characters winningly.”
—
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Rice has an elegant style, a sharp eye, and a real warmth. In her hands, families, and their values … seem worth cherishing.”
—
San Francisco Chronicle
“Luanne Rice has enticed millions of readers by enveloping them in stories that are wrapped in the hot, sultry weather of summer.… She does it so well.”
—
USA Today
“What a lovely writer Luanne Rice is.”
—D
OMINICK
D
UNNE
“[Luanne Rice’s] characters break readers’ hearts.… True-to-life characters dealing with real issues—people following journeys that will either break them or heal them.”
—
The Columbus Dispatch
“A joy to read.”
—
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Addictive … irresistible.”
—
People
“Rice writes as naturally as she breathes.”
—B
RENDAN
G
ILL
“Luanne Rice has a talent for navigating the emotions that range through familial bonds, from love and respect to anger.… A beautiful blend of love and humor, with a little bit of magic thrown in.”
—
The Denver Post
“Brilliant.”
—
Entertainment Weekly
“Exciting, emotional, terrific. What more could you want?”
—
The New York Times Book Review
“Rice makes us believe that healing is possible.”
—
Chicago Tribune
“Good domestic drama is Rice’s chosen field, and she knows every acre of it.… Rice’s home fires burn brighter than most, and leave more than a few smoldering moments to remember.”
—
Kirkus Reviews
“Rice masterfully weaves together a batch of sympathetic characters into a rich and vivid tapestry, all while exploring complex human emotions and the healing power of love.”
—
The Flint Journal
“Book after book, Rice never fails to deliver a beautiful tale full of emotion. [She] speaks to the reader of magic, miracles and pursuing your dreams, no matter what the cost.”
“Rice … excels at weaving the familiar staples of popular fiction into storytelling gold; her talent for portraying both children at risk and good men scarred by circumstance also dazzles. [She] depicts the magical endurance of love with the sensitivity and realism for which she’s known.”
—
Publishers Weekly
“Rice is a gifted storyteller with a keen sense of both the possibilities and contingencies of life.”
—Brunswick
Times Record
“Rice’s great strength is in creating realistic characters readers care about.”
—
The Denver Post
“Few … authors are able to portray the complex and contradictory emotions that bind family members as effortlessly as Rice.”
—
Publishers Weekly
“Full of all the things families are made of: love, secrets, traditions, and memories.”
—
The Providence Journal
“Luanne Rice handles with marvelous insight and sensitivity the complex chemistry of a family that might be the one next door.”
—E
ILEEN
G
OUDGE
“Rice, a terrific storyteller and a poetic stylist, takes on a difficult and brutal subject and transforms it into a source of light and hope.”
—
Booklist
“Irresistible … fast-paced … moving … vivid storytelling. Readers can almost smell the sea air. Rice has a gift for creating realistic characters, and the pages fly by as those characters explore the bonds of family.”
—
Orlando Sentinel
“What the author does best: heartfelt family drama, gracefully written and poignant.”
—
Kirkus Reviews
“Rice, always skilled at drafting complex stories … reveals her special strength in character development.”
—
The Star-Ledger
“Rice’s ability to evoke the lyricism of the seaside lifestyle without oversentimentalizing contemporary issues … is just one of … many gifts that make … a perfect summer read.”
—
Publishers Weekly
(starred review)
“Rice, as always, provides her readers with a delightful love story filled with the subtle nuances of the human heart.”
—
Booklist
“Luanne Rice touches the deepest, most tender corners of the heart.”
—T
AMI
H
OAG
“Pure gold.”
—
Library Journal
BY LUANNE RICE
The Deep Blue Sea for Beginners • The Geometry of Sisters
Last Kiss • Light of the Moon • What Matters Most
The Edge of Winter • Sandcastles • Summer of Roses
Summer’s Child • Silver Bells • Beach Girls • Dance With Me
The Perfect Summer • The Secret Hour • True Blue
Safe Harbor • Summer Light • Firefly Beach
Dream Country • Follow the Stars Home • Cloud Nine
Home Fires • Blue Moon • Secrets of Paris
Stone Heart • Crazy in Love • Angels All Over Town
with Joseph Monninger
The Letters
Secrets of Paris
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are
the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual
persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
2011 Bantam Books Trade Paperback Edition
Copyright © 1991 by Luanne Rice
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Bantam Books, an imprint of The Random House
Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
BANTAM BOOKS
and the rooster colophon are registered trademarks of
Random House, Inc.
Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Viking Penguin, a division of
Penguin Books USA Inc., in 1991.
Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint excerpts from the following
copyrighted works:
Madame de Sévigné: A Life and Letters
by Frances Mossiker. Copyright ©
1983 by Frances Mossiker. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.,
a division of Random House, Inc.
Selected Letters
by Madame de Sévigné, translated by Leonard Tancock,
Penguin Classics 1982. Copyright © Leonard Tancock, 1982.
Reproduced by permission of Penguin Books Ltd.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rice, Luanne.
Secrets of Paris: a novel / Luanne Rice.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-553-90817-6 I. Title.
PS3558.I289S44 1991
813′.54—dc20 90-50746
Cover design: Brigid Pearson
Cover images: © TanMan/Getty Images (sunset), David Sacks/Taxi/Getty Images (couple), Jan Martin Will/Shutterstock (Seine)
v3.1
For Max, Olivier,
and Amelia Onorato,
with love
What I am about to communicate to you is the most astonishing thing, the most surprising, most triumphant, most baffling, most unheard of, most singular, most unbelievable, most unforeseen, biggest, tiniest, rarest, commonest, the most talked about, the most secret up to this day, the most enviable, in fact a thing of which only one example can be found in past ages, and, moreover, that example is a false one; a thing nobody can believe in Paris (how could anyone believe it in Lyons?)
.
—F
ROM
M
ADAME DE
S
ÉVIGNÉ TO
C
OULANGES
,
D
ECEMBER 1672