The Emperor of Paris

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
A GLOBE AND MAIL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
LONGLISTED FOR THE GILLER PRIZE

Octavio Notre-Dame comes from a long line of bakers. At the establishment known throughout the eighth district as the cake-slice, he produces baguettes and brioches with timeless perfection. But like generations of Notre-Dame men before him, Octavio has never mastered the art of reading. His only knowledge of the world beyond the bakery is born of his imagination.

Meanwhile, in the basement of the Louvre, Isabeau Normande restores great works of art to their original glory. Trying to forget her own disfigured beauty, she loses herself in the faces of others and the wonders she finds in books.

The two might never have met, but for a curious chain of coincidences involving an impoverished painter, a lonely bookseller and a book of ancient tales lost and found . . .

“A metaphorical feast for the senses.” —Winnipeg Free Press

“Shimmers with the heightened clarity of a dream.” —National Post