THE PARIS WINTER
By Imogen Robertson. (St. Martin's Press, 360 pages, $25.99.)
Among sophisticated literary thrillers, "Gone Girl" has nothing on "The Paris Winter," a superbly crafted historical novel set in the Belle Époque Paris of the early 1890s. English author Imogen Robertson was inspired by her grandmother's youthful adventures in Europe to create the character of Maud Heighton, a shy, proud, impoverished young Englishwoman who has come to Paris to hone her painting skills.
Faint with hunger and discouragement, she stumbles gratefully into gainful employment caring for the opium-addicted sister of a mysterious and slightly sinister man. Life slowly improves for her — until it does not. After some very subtle, intriguing foreshadowing, a shocking thing happens about halfway through the novel.
The book's second half, while as exquisitely fashioned as the first, is harsh and vivid as Maud's character shifts in ways that are not entirely attractive. Along the way, Robertson creates several unforgettable characters and beautifully evokes the often ugly Paris of the era. Atmospheric and addictive, this is a nearly flawless book.
PAMELA MILLER,
West/north metro team leader
THE HISTORY OF FLY-FISHING IN FIFTY FLIES
By Ian Whitelaw, illustrated by Julie Spyropoulos. (Steward Tabori & Chang, 224 pages, $22.50.)
This book, for the avid fly fisherman, takes the rich history of the sport and cleverly threads it through the eyes of fish hooks. It begins in 1496, the year that a book attributed to an English prioress described how to tie a dozen different fishing flies.
In this new fly-by-fly history, Ian Whitelaw casts around the world and across centuries describing the evolution of fishing flies, the people who first tied them on hooks and the places where they took fish. It lands at unexpected places such as Hungry Jack Lake in northeastern Minnesota. That's where Don Gapen grew up and learned to fish. In 1936, the book recounts, Gapen invented the Muddler Minnow — a fly still famous, and fished with, nearly 80 years later. This book might not help you catch fish, but it's a delightful ramble along the stream of fishing history.
DAVID SHAFFER,
Reporter
