These Dividing Walls: Shortlisted for the 2018 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award

Number 37 has its stories: in this it is like any building. For what building doesn't have secrets? How much does anyone know of what goes on behind their neighbours' doors? Far back on Paris' Left Bank, in a secret quarter, Edward arrives at an empty attic room for the summer. On the floors below him are the residents of number 37: Cesar, a banker hiding his redundancy from his wife, lives adjacent to Isabelle, a bitter HR manager; Madame Marin, the gossiping hairdresser lives below Anais, a young mother on the edge; and Frederique, a bohemian bookshop owner, takes her daily tea with Josef, the ever watching homeless man over the road. Edward arrives in their midst having fled from his home in England, from his mother, whose dementia is worsening, his father, consumed with grief and hiding it badly, and from the gaping hole the death of his sister has left. He hopes that Paris will be a distraction, that he will mend and heal. And though he befriends some young, politically-minded French students, he is drawn back to the residents of number 37, as between its walls secrets are revealed and true natures unmasked, and relationships blossom and falter. As the summer heat becomes stifling, members of the new Far Right hand out pamphlets in bars and rally in squares, until tensions reach boiling point and terror strikes in the heart of Paris, and number 37's deepest secrets are revealed. These Dividing Walls is a striking debut novel by a compelling new author.