The Baby Of Belleville | Granta

  • Published: 07/07/2011
  • ISBN: 9781846273971
  • Granta Books
  • 400 pages

The Baby Of Belleville

Anne Marsella

Every new mother has a story to tell – and this is Jane de la Rochefoucault’s. It’s a story that contains all the familiar yet magical landmarks of feeding, teething, toddling, and measuring stuff in and out of Tupperware. But, as an expat living in Paris, Jane also faces some challenges they never mention in the handbooks. Such as, how to juggle a new baby with the demands of an aristocratic husband, a competitive nursing circle, an artisan plumber, and a formidably French (and possibly law-breaking) mother-in-law… Swiftly plotted, linguistically playful and sparkling with wit, The Baby of Belleville will draw you into its unique imaginative universe and make you reluctant to leave.

A quietly subversive novel that resists easy categorisation... Marsella is at her best when she writes about its joys and discomforts of new motherhood. With the faint detachment of a foreigner living in a strange place, she offers the reader a sidelong glimpse of Paris and its idiosyncrasies that makes this strange, sweet book rather a find.

Tina Jackson, Metro

An imaginative, fast-paced flight of fancy... a quirky and entertaining journey through the streets of Paris.

Living France

The book centres on the trials and pleasures of motherhood ...with its alliterative puns [and] neatly turned witticisms.

David Evans, Independent

The Author

Originally from California’s San Joaquin Valley, Anne Marsella now lives in Paris with her husband, a jazz musician, and their son. Her previous books include an acclaimed collection of stories, The Lost and Found and Other Stories (NYU Press), Patsy Boone (Editions de la Difference) and Remedy (Portobello, 2007).

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From the Same Author

Remedy

Anne Marsella

Meet Remedy: a young, single American living on the rive gauche and toiling at an on-line fashion magazine. She may have her feet on well-trodden expat ground, but she has her head in the clouds and the path she walks through Paris is distinctly original. When she’s not dreaming up articles about this season’s must-have accessory or foiling her best friend’s attempts at match-making, she attends mass with a blind nun, shimmies her way through belly-dancing classes and meditates on the lives of the saints. All the while, believing that spiritual enlightenment and romantic fulfilment might be just around the corner …