The Ruins of Paris

From Belleville to Passy, from Montmartre to La-Butte-aux-Cailles, from Antony to Saint-Ouen, the author of this book is a traveller in his own city, Paris. The book echoes with the footsteps and the words of a wanderer by turns gloomy, curious, troubled, elated, angry, tender and confused, as it takes readers through the arrondissements and suburbs of Paris and beyond, in a journey that moves to the rhythm of walking, of trains, and of upbeat jazz. Reda is forever on the move. He constantly sets off, stops, begins afresh, always searching for questions that can’t be answered, and the book is both a poetic meditation on Paris and a companion to its views and moods.