The value of historical knowledge as an alternative to living in the present is explored in this new book from the author of bestselling novel }Birdsong{. American postgraduate Hannah, who researches the lives of women during the German occupation, and Tariq, who has run away from Morocco in search of sex and adventure, are followed as a conduit to these themes. Presents a Paris not of refined aspirations but of cultural hauntings and simmering tensions.