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"A Paris Apartment" -- A Bestselling Novel Now in Paperback

Aired on Monday, June 29th.

On this edition of ST, author Michelle Gable joins us by phone to discuss her bestselling novel, "A Paris Apartment," which is just out in paperback from St. Martin's. It's the readable and hard-to-resist story of one April Vogt, a furniture specialist at Sotheby's in NYC who travels to Paris to investigate an apartment in the fabled ninth arrondissement neighborhood that's been unoccupied -- and, in fact, totally forgotten -- for the past seventy years. Once in France, April quickly learns that the furniture-laden apartment is not merely some rich hoarder's repository. Beneath the cobwebs and stale air are valuable paintings, pieces of gold and jewelry, a bronze bath tub, and various letters and journals written by a mysterious, alluring woman named Marthe de Florian, a renowned courtesan. As was noted of this work in The San Diego Union-Tribune: "Gable's Paris of today and of yesteryear are worlds that are easy and pleasurable to get lost in. April's and Marthe's stories intersect, at times blatantly and at times subtly mirroring or contrasting one another.... This [novel's] parallel construction, the sense of place and atmosphere, and Gable's often witty writing are the book's greatest strengths." Also on today's show, our commentator Collin Hinds looks back with appreciation to a certain 8-o vote made by Tulsa City Councilors back in April; this refreshingly inclusive decision effectively added sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of classes protected under the city's fair housing ordinance.

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