Paris, the pinnacle of romance, atmosphere and fine cuisine: how better to savor the City of Light than with a racehorse, a dog, a raven, a pair of geese and two rats? In her heartwarming novel, Jane Smiley (A Thousand Acres; the Last Hundred Years trilogy) follows Perestroika ("Paras") as the inquisitive filly slips out of her racetrack stable, picks up what she has heard is a "purse" (hadn't she just won one, after all?) and grazes her way down intriguing new paths.
An oddity--"a horse, not attached to a carriage"--Paras attracts other creatures in the Place du Trocadéro park where she shelters, and their thoughts sound as natural as any human's. Frida, a savvy German shorthaired pointer, is mostly drawn to her purse. (Formerly a busker's dog, she knew what purses could hold.) Frida kindly tutors Paras in the ways of the city, thriftily dipping into the purse for their provisions. Raoul, the wise raven, observes and advises. The mallards, Nancy and Sid, provide comic relief. As Paras's curiosity takes her farther into Paris, she meets Etienne, a young orphan. Enchanted by the beautiful thoroughbred, he lures her to the gated estate where he cares for his great grandmama.
In Smiley's magical fable, the boy, the unsuspecting blind grandmother, the horse, the raven, two house rats (Paras enjoys a rat's back-scratching) and even cautious Frida live peacefully. The incredible tale twists into an ending so happy that readers will be both delighted for the characters and sad to say goodbye. --Cheryl McKeon, bookseller, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y.