Where “Moulin Rouge” meets “The Paris Wife” lies “A Paris Apartment” (Thomas Dunne Books; on-sale April 22), a rich and colorful debut by Michelle Gable. Inspired by the uncovering of a shuttered, long-forgotten Parisian apartment full of endless treasures, Gable's “A Paris Apartment” allows the imagination to fly to Paris, to decades past, and to one woman's truly amazing abode as it winds between the past, the present, and the lives, loves, and fortunes of two captivating women.
April Vogt has overseen countless auctions in her career, with the spoils usually coming from different versions of the same place: a grandmother's mansion or a father's penthouse. So, when April's boss asks her to fly to Paris to help remove the possessions found inside a cramped, decrepit, ninth arrondissement apartment, the Sotheby's furniture specialist doesn't think much of it, eager to leave behind her husband to continue her love affair with Paris, a city she knows well.
Once in Paris, however, April finds the apartment is not merely some rich hoarder's repository. Instead, she uncovers untouched, museum-quality pieces curated only by spiders and ghosts. The apartment is a goldmine, filled with painted ostrich eggs, mounted rhinoceros horns, a bronze bathtub, and a priceless Boldini portrait. Perhaps most intriguing, though, is the discovery of the letters and journals that reveal the passionate woman in the portrait. For April, it's now no longer about the bureau plats and Louis-style armchairs sure to fetch millions at auction. It's about a life. Two lives, actually.
As April digs further into the woman's life, with the help of a Parisian solicitor, she can't help but take a deeper look at her own. When two things she left bubbling back in the States begin to boil over, April starts to wonder if she'll ever find what she's looking for, in this apartment or in her life.
The Inspiration.
Madame de Florian was a French socialite who fled her Paris apartment for the south of France at the outbreak of World War II. She kept her apartment in case she ever wanted to return. Though she never did return, she continued to pay rent on it until her death in 2010 at age 91, when an auctioneer entered her apartment and discovered the time capsule full of endless treasures, untouched since 1942.
Michelle Gable graduated from The College of William & Mary. When not dreaming up fiction on the sly, she currently resides in Cardiff by the Sea, Calif., with her husband, two daughters, and one lazy cat. This is her first novel.
To learn more, visit www.michellegable.com. The hardcover 384-page book is $25.99 through Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Press.