Carole DeSanti, who will be reading at BookCourt at 163 Court Street in Brooklyn next Tuesday, March 26th at 7PM, has written a transporting debut novel set in the backstreets and bordellos of 19th century Paris. While this is the author’s first novel, she is a veteran of the publishing business and has been an editor at Penguin known for her championing of strong female literary voices.

The book, which took a decade to write is about Eugénie R., a woman born in France’s foie gras country, who follows the man she loves to Paris, but soon finds herself marooned, pregnant, and penniless.

Sounds interesting so far, right?

She gives birth to a daughter she is forced to abandon and spends the next ten years fighting to get her back. An outcast, Eugénie takes to the streets,  navigating her way up from ruin and charting the treacherous waters of sexual commerce.

Are you hooked yet? I am.

Along the way she falls in love with an artist, a woman, and a revolutionary.

Ooh la la.

Ah Paris: City of my dreams. The capital, the gleaming center of art and civilization in Europe, is enjoying its final years of wanton prosperity before galloping headlong into the Franco-Prussian War.

For the protagonist its a conflicted landscape — grisly, evocative, addictive. As the gates of the city close against the advancing army, Eugénie must make a decision between past and present — between the people she loves most

Join Carole for the paperback launch at Bookcourt:

March 26, 2013, 7:00 p.m.

Brooklyn BookCourt

163 Court St

Brooklyn, NY 11201

http://bookcourt.com/