The Paris Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $26.22
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Kiiri Sandy
-
Written by:
-
Ruth Reichl
About this listen
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “mouthwatering” (The New York Times) adventure through the food, art, and fashion scenes of 1980s Paris—from the bestselling author of Save Me the Plums and Delicious!
“An enchanting and irresistible feast . . . As with a perfect meal in the world’s most magical city, I never wanted this sublime novel to end.”—Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, author of Good Company
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Saveur, Food & Wine, Bookreporter, The Charlotte Observer
Stella reached for an oyster, tipped her head, and tossed it back. It was cool and slippery, the flavor so briny it was like diving into the ocean. Oysters, she thought. Where have they been all my life?
When her estranged mother dies, Stella is left with an unusual inheritance: a one-way plane ticket and a note reading “Go to Paris.” Stella is hardly cut out for adventure; a traumatic childhood has kept her confined to the strict routines of her comfort zone. But when her boss encourages her to take time off, Stella resigns herself to honoring her mother’s last wishes.
Alone in a foreign city, Stella falls into old habits, living cautiously and frugally. Then she stumbles across a vintage store, where she tries on a fabulous Dior dress. The shopkeeper insists that this dress was meant for Stella and for the first time in her life Stella does something impulsive. She buys the dress—and embarks on an adventure.
Her first stop: the iconic brasserie Les Deux Magots, where Stella tastes her first oysters and then meets an octogenarian art collector who decides to take her under his wing. As Jules introduces Stella to a veritable who’s who of the Paris literary, art, and culinary worlds, she begins to understand what it might mean to live a larger life.
As weeks—and many decadent meals—go by, Stella ends up living as a “tumbleweed” at famed bookstore Shakespeare & Company, uncovers a hundred-year-old mystery in a Manet painting, and discovers a passion for food that may be connected to her past. A feast for the senses, this novel is a testament to living deliciously, taking chances, and finding your true home.
©2024 Ruth Reichl (P)2024 Random House AudioYou may also enjoy...
-
Save Me the Plums
- My Gourmet Memoir
- Written by: Ruth Reichl
- Narrated by: Ruth Reichl
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Condé Nast offered Ruth Reichl the top position at America’s oldest epicurean magazine, she declined. She was a writer, not a manager, and had no inclination to be anyone’s boss. Yet Reichl had been reading Gourmet since she was eight; it had inspired her career. How could she say no? This is the story of a former Berkeley hippie entering the corporate world and worrying about losing her soul. It is the story of the moment restaurants became an important part of popular culture, a time when the rise of the farm-to-table movement changed, forever, the way we eat.
-
-
I made a mistake wasting a credit on this audible book.
- By Anonymous User on 2024-08-01
Written by: Ruth Reichl
-
The French Ingredient
- Making a Life in Paris One Lesson at a Time: A Memoir
- Written by: Jane Bertch
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Jane Bertch was seventeen, her mother took her on a graduation trip to Paris. Thrilled to use her high school French, Jane found her halting attempts greeted with withering condescension by every waiter and shopkeeper she encountered. At the end of the trip, she vowed she would never return.
-
-
C’est magnifique!
- By SJL2 on 2025-01-26
Written by: Jane Bertch
-
Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent
- Written by: Judi Dench, Brendan O'Hea
- Narrated by: Barbara Flynn, Brendan O'Hea, Judi Dench
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the very first time, Judi opens up about every Shakespearean role she has played throughout her seven-decade career, from Lady Macbeth and Titania to Ophelia and Cleopatra. In a series of intimate conversations with actor & director Brendan O'Hea, she guides us through Shakespeare's plays with incisive clarity, revealing the secrets of her rehearsal process and inviting us to share in her triumphs, disasters, and backstage shenanigans.
Written by: Judi Dench, and others
-
Death at La Fenice
- Commissario Brunetti Mysteries, Book 1
- Written by: Donna Leon
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During intermission at the famed La Fenice opera house in Venice, Italy, a notoriously difficult and widely disliked German conductor is poisoned—and suspects abound. Guido Brunetti, a native Venetian, sets out to unravel the mystery behind the high-profile murder. To do so, he calls on his knowledge of Venice, its culture, and its dirty politics. Along the way, he finds the crime may have roots going back decades—and that revenge, corruption, and even Italian cuisine may play a role.
-
-
Even better than reading the book!
- By Studio14Art on 2023-02-23
Written by: Donna Leon
-
Table for Two
- Fictions
- Written by: Amor Towles
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, J. Smith-Cameron
- Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Millions of Amor Towles fans are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood. The New York stories, most of which take place around the year 2000, consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages.
-
-
Loved this just like Rules of Civility
- By Abou on 2024-06-27
Written by: Amor Towles
-
The Sicilian Inheritance
- A Novel
- Written by: Jo Piazza
- Narrated by: Rachel F. Hirsch, Carlotta Brentan
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sara Marsala barely knows who she is anymore after the failure of her business and marriage. On top of that, her beloved great-aunt Rosie passes away, leaving Sara bereft with grief. But Aunt Rosie’s death also opens an escape from her life and a window into the past by way of a plane ticket to Sicily, a deed to a possibly valuable plot of land, and a bombshell family secret. Rosie believes Sara’s great-grandmother Serafina, the family matriarch who was left behind while her husband worked in America, didn’t die of illness as family lore has it . . . she was murdered.
-
-
Fabulous!
- By Anonymous User on 2024-08-28
Written by: Jo Piazza
-
Save Me the Plums
- My Gourmet Memoir
- Written by: Ruth Reichl
- Narrated by: Ruth Reichl
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Condé Nast offered Ruth Reichl the top position at America’s oldest epicurean magazine, she declined. She was a writer, not a manager, and had no inclination to be anyone’s boss. Yet Reichl had been reading Gourmet since she was eight; it had inspired her career. How could she say no? This is the story of a former Berkeley hippie entering the corporate world and worrying about losing her soul. It is the story of the moment restaurants became an important part of popular culture, a time when the rise of the farm-to-table movement changed, forever, the way we eat.
-
-
I made a mistake wasting a credit on this audible book.
- By Anonymous User on 2024-08-01
Written by: Ruth Reichl
-
The French Ingredient
- Making a Life in Paris One Lesson at a Time: A Memoir
- Written by: Jane Bertch
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Jane Bertch was seventeen, her mother took her on a graduation trip to Paris. Thrilled to use her high school French, Jane found her halting attempts greeted with withering condescension by every waiter and shopkeeper she encountered. At the end of the trip, she vowed she would never return.
-
-
C’est magnifique!
- By SJL2 on 2025-01-26
Written by: Jane Bertch
-
Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent
- Written by: Judi Dench, Brendan O'Hea
- Narrated by: Barbara Flynn, Brendan O'Hea, Judi Dench
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the very first time, Judi opens up about every Shakespearean role she has played throughout her seven-decade career, from Lady Macbeth and Titania to Ophelia and Cleopatra. In a series of intimate conversations with actor & director Brendan O'Hea, she guides us through Shakespeare's plays with incisive clarity, revealing the secrets of her rehearsal process and inviting us to share in her triumphs, disasters, and backstage shenanigans.
Written by: Judi Dench, and others
-
Death at La Fenice
- Commissario Brunetti Mysteries, Book 1
- Written by: Donna Leon
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During intermission at the famed La Fenice opera house in Venice, Italy, a notoriously difficult and widely disliked German conductor is poisoned—and suspects abound. Guido Brunetti, a native Venetian, sets out to unravel the mystery behind the high-profile murder. To do so, he calls on his knowledge of Venice, its culture, and its dirty politics. Along the way, he finds the crime may have roots going back decades—and that revenge, corruption, and even Italian cuisine may play a role.
-
-
Even better than reading the book!
- By Studio14Art on 2023-02-23
Written by: Donna Leon
-
Table for Two
- Fictions
- Written by: Amor Towles
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, J. Smith-Cameron
- Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Millions of Amor Towles fans are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood. The New York stories, most of which take place around the year 2000, consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages.
-
-
Loved this just like Rules of Civility
- By Abou on 2024-06-27
Written by: Amor Towles
-
The Sicilian Inheritance
- A Novel
- Written by: Jo Piazza
- Narrated by: Rachel F. Hirsch, Carlotta Brentan
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sara Marsala barely knows who she is anymore after the failure of her business and marriage. On top of that, her beloved great-aunt Rosie passes away, leaving Sara bereft with grief. But Aunt Rosie’s death also opens an escape from her life and a window into the past by way of a plane ticket to Sicily, a deed to a possibly valuable plot of land, and a bombshell family secret. Rosie believes Sara’s great-grandmother Serafina, the family matriarch who was left behind while her husband worked in America, didn’t die of illness as family lore has it . . . she was murdered.
-
-
Fabulous!
- By Anonymous User on 2024-08-28
Written by: Jo Piazza
-
The Kill Artist
- Written by: Daniel Silva
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the assassination of his wife and son, Gabriel Allon retires from his brutal anti-terrorist career and loses himself in his previous cover job: art restoration. But when Tariq al-Hourani, the Palestinian terrorist responsible for his family’s death, begins a killing spree designed to destroy Middle East peace talks, Gabriel once again slips into the shadowy world of international intrigue. In a global game of hide-and-seek, the motives of Gabriel and Tariq soon become more personal than political.
-
-
Dady101
- By Daddy#1 on 2023-03-23
Written by: Daniel Silva
-
JFK Jr.
- An Intimate Oral Biography
- Written by: RoseMarie Terenzio, Liz McNeil
- Narrated by: Michael David Axtell, Kevin R. Free, Lanna Joffrey, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first oral biography of John F. Kennedy Jr. is an extraordinarily intimate, comprehensive look at the real man behind the myth. Sharing never-before-told stories and insights, his closest friends, confidantes, lovers, classmates, teachers, and colleagues paint a vivid portrait of one of the most beloved figures of the 20th century, revealing how the boy who saluted became the man America came to know and love who still captures public imagination twenty-five years after his tragic death.
-
-
Nothing we didn’t already know
- By Alison Posen on 2024-10-28
Written by: RoseMarie Terenzio, and others
-
The Lion Women of Tehran
- Written by: Marjan Kamali
- Narrated by: Mozhan Navabi, Nikki Massoud
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother’s endless grievances, Ellie dreams of a friend to alleviate her isolation. Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind, passionate girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa’s warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions for becoming “lion women.”
-
-
Excellent story and narration
- By A.B on 2024-09-10
Written by: Marjan Kamali
-
The Husbands
- A Novel
- Written by: Holly Gramazio
- Narrated by: Miranda Raison
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Lauren returns home to her flat in London late one night, she is greeted at the door by her husband, Michael. There’s only one problem—she’s not married. She’s never seen this man before in her life. But according to her friends, her much-improved decor, and the photos on her phone, they’ve been together for years.
-
-
A disapointment
- By Stécie April on 2024-10-23
Written by: Holly Gramazio
-
Sex and Vanity
- A Novel
- Written by: Kevin Kwan
- Narrated by: Lydia Look
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The iconic author of the best-selling phenomenon Crazy Rich Asians returns with the glittering tale of a young woman who finds herself torn between two men: the WASPY fiancé of her family's dreams and George Zao, the man she is desperately trying to avoid falling in love with.
-
-
worst narrator
- By Joyce Meneses on 2020-07-06
Written by: Kevin Kwan
-
The Dictionary of Lost Words
- A Novel
- Written by: Pip Williams
- Narrated by: Pippa Bennett-Warner
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, an Oxford garden shed in which her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Young Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word bondmaid flutters beneath the table. She rescues the slip and, learning that the word means “slave girl,” begins to collect other words discarded or neglected by the dictionary men.
-
-
Beautifully written historical love story of words
- By Chantal Plowman on 2023-01-11
Written by: Pip Williams
What the critics say
“Reichl['s] . . . writing reads like a dish you want to savor, slowly chewing each perfectly chosen word as she describes the distinct experience of eating ortolan for the first time or sipping a red wine that tastes like ‘liquid rubies.’”—Eater
“A delicious feast for the senses, taking the reader on an enchanting journey through the city of love, and following Stella’s adventure into a bolder, more beautiful life.”—Oprah Daily
“[E]nticing . . . Reichl keeps the wine—and mouthwatering prose—flowing. . . . When a waiter drops an extra dessert on the table, better not send it back to the kitchen.”—The New York Times
Editorial Review
What listeners say about The Paris Novel
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 2024-12-22
Deliciously Descriptive
This is a story that wakes up the senses. I felt like I was sitting at the table with the main character, Stella, sharing in the sensations of the various dishes. The author cleverly weaves in literary references alongside Parisian locations, chefs, art, fashion, architecture and, of course, cuisine. I was transported.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Alanna
- 2024-09-01
A captivating sensual feast
The narrator has such range for the characters. The book is a fairytale but happily one I would visit many times.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Wrong account
- 2024-12-31
Greatly Enjoyed
After not having been back to EU in over 10 years, this was a great way to enjoy the pleasures of France! The food, drink, and art was well described, and the story was captivating. Felt that the last 1/4 of the book was a bit of a quicker pace than the first 3/4, but everything was tied up nicely.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!