Paris Blue - by Julie Scolnik (Paperback)

About the Book

"Paris, 1976: Twenty-year-old American student Julie Scolnik had just arrived in the City of Light to study the flute when, from across a sea of faces in the chorus of the Orchestre de Paris, she is drawn to Luc, a striking (married) French lawyer in the bass section. This moving tale of an ebullient young American and a reserved Frenchman will transport readers to the cafâes, streets, and concert halls of Paris in the late seventies, and, spanning three decades, evolves from deep romance to sudden heartbreak, and finally to a lifelong quest for answers to release hidden, immutable grief.Against a magical backdrop of Paris and classical music, Paris Blue is true fairy-tale memoir (with a dark underbelly) about the tenacious grip of first love."--

Book Synopsis

PARIS, 1976: In this memoir of first love, twenty-year-old American student Julie Scolnik arrives in the City of Light to study the flute when, from across a sea of faces in the chorus of the Orchestre de Paris, she is drawn to Luc, a striking (married) French lawyer in the bass section.

This moving Paris memoir captures the unfolding story of an ebullient young American and a reserved Frenchman, transporting readers to the cafés, streets, and concert halls of 1970s Paris. Spanning three decades, the story evolves from deep romance to sudden heartbreak, and finally to a lifelong quest for answers to release hidden, immutable grief.

Against a magical backdrop of Paris and classical music, Paris Blue is a true fairy-tale memoir (with a dark underbelly) about the tenacious grip of first love.

Praise for Paris Blue

"Not every true story is like a good novel, but this one is. Not every memoir of first love has a satisfying ending, but this one does. The confluence of first love with becoming an artist makes this memoir special."

- John Irving

Review Quotes

"Julie Scolnik's page turner of a memoir captures with beauty and rare insight the power of music, words, and Paris to drive love to madness."

- Judith Coffin, author of Sex, Love, and Letters: Writing Simone de Beauvoir

" . . . A deeply felt, bittersweet reflection on how youthful passion changes you and clings to you, forever."

-Howard Reich, author of The Art of Inventing Hope: Intimate Conversations with Elie Wiesel

"Paris Blue is written with the tender romanticism of Wordsworth and the devastating realism of Flaubert . . . a dazzling love letter to a life lived in music."

-Linda Katherine Cutting, author of Memory Slips