Paris Street Tales

Constantine’s anthology, her third in the City Tales series to explore Paris, features two centuries of stories focused specifically on Parisian streets. In the opening tale by Didier Daeninckx, “Rue des Degrés,” a man is found murdered, and the subsequent investigation uncovers an unsavory past filled with ambitions that led to his demise. Although crime is a common theme throughout the collection, a few stories reflect on the nostalgia and sense of comfort Paris can bring. In “Old Iron” by Émile Zola a shopkeeper gives a journalist a crash course in Paris history through his collection of junk plucked from the Seine. Many of the authors here will be new to American readers, while others—Guy de Maupassant, Marcel Aymé, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, Georges Simenon—will be more familiar. In one of the collection’s most powerful stories, “The Street Is Not Enough” by Aurélie Filippetti, a community angrily complains about the poor underclass moving in, with an ending, that lands like a punch to the gut. Often moody and always eccentric, the collection—dedicated to the memory of Parisians killed in recent attacks at Charlie Hebdo and the Bataclan—uncovers the dark and light corners hidden in a city of interesting characters and exuberant history. (Nov.)