Paris in the Present Tense

“Just as a curve is a series of infinitely small angles, and according to philosophers a point cannot exist, logically there is no present but only the infinitesimal and perhaps nonexistent space between past and future, as any schoolchild thinking about space and time might suspect. One that distinguishes Paris, however, making of it a magnet of attraction, is that it turns all this on its head. In Paris the present dominates the spectrum of time....The past is present in its reverberations and sustain, and the future is present in the clarity and beauty of its promises.”

The plot of Paris in the Present Tense centers on Jules Lacour, a seventy-four year old cellist living in Paris. His only grandchild is dying of cancer. Lacour must figure out a way to help his grandson get treatment. I don't want to say too much, but know that there are other important plot elements including an attack by racists and a love affair with a much younger woman.

The plot is wonderfully intricate, but so are the characters and so are the great wisdoms shared by Lacour in the story.

Paris in the Present Tense will definitely be on my Best of 2018 list.