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WORK TITLE: Goodbye Paris
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1965
WEBSITE: https://www.ansteyharris.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: British
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1965; children: Lucy Spraggan.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Creative writing instructor at Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, England, and through her company, Writing Matters.
AWARDS:H.G. Wells Short Story Prize, 2015; three-time winner of Faber Academy’s #QuickFic competition.
WRITINGS
Short stories published in anthologies and periodicals.
SIDELIGHTS
Anstey Harris is a creative writing teacher and award-winning short fiction writer who made her debut as a novelist with Goodbye, Paris. The story revolves around Grace Atherton and the consequences of of an event that upends her well ordered life. Thirty-nine-year-old Grace owns a shop in England’s Kent County, where she makes and repairs violins and other stringed instruments. Grace can play the cello, but she has not done so for many years, and her acquaintances know nothing of her musical talent. She earns a comfortable living from the shop and is largely self-sufficient. She has no close relatives, few friends, and little social life except for regular trips to see her married boyfriend, David, who lives in Paris. On one of her visits to David, they are in Paris’s subway, the Metro, when a woman falls onto the tracks and David rescues her. Security video of the incident is viewed around the world, bringing sudden fame to Grace and David, while also exposing many secrets David has been keeping. Grace feels her life is falling apart, but she tries to rebuild it with help from Mr. Williams, an elderly customer of her shop, and Nadia, the teenage girl she employs as a sales clerk. Along the way, Grace reveals some secrets of her own.
Several reviewers found the novel engaging and offered praise for Harris’s writing style. Grace displays “rather unbelievable gullibility,” observed a Kirkus Reviews critic, who noted that despite this, “Harris’ capable prose draws the reader along to see what happens next,” and that in the final analysis, the protagonist comes across as “a very real character.” Shelf Awareness online contributor Elyse Dinh-McCrillis likewise thought Grace’s level of naivete sometimes strained credibility, but added that the character’s “trusting spirit” will “keep readers rooting for her.” Dinh-McCrillis further commented favorably on the novel’s “descriptions of mouthwatering food” and portrayal of “the way Grace lovingly crafts her instruments and how she discovers her own self-worth.” Jade Anna Hughes, blogging at From the Inside, remarked on Harris’s descriptive powers as well, saying she “evokes the beauty of playing music in an exquisite way,” and provides vivid, appealing snapshots of Paris. The supporting characters of Mr. Williams and Nadia also pleased some critics, with Hughes calling them “the stars of the show.” She termed some aspects of Goodbye, Paris “annoying” or “predictable,” but she dubbed it overall “a lovely summer read.” The Kirkus Reviews contributor summed it up as “a solid debut.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2018, review of Goodbye, Paris.
ONLINE
Anstey Harris website, https://www.ansteyharris.com (October 15, 2018).
Bent Agency website, http://www.thebentagency.com/ (October 15, 2018), brief biography.
From the Inside, http://www.jadeannahughes.com/ (August 3, 2018), Jade Anna Hughes, review of Goodbye, Paris.
Shelf Awareness, http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ (October 15, 2018), Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, review of Goodbye, Paris.
Anstey Harris teaches creative writing for Canterbury Christ Church University and in the community with her own company, Writing Matters. Harris’s short stories have been widely published in anthologies and online and she was the winner of the H.G. Wells Short Story Prize in 2015. She was recently shortlisted in the National Gallery Short Story Competition and chosen by The Word Factory to read her short story, “A Hairy Tale”, alongside A.L. Kennedy at their June literary salon in 2016. She is a three-time winner of the Faber Academy’s #QuickFic competition. Anstey lives in Kent, England, and is the mother of the singer-songwriter (famous for her stint on The X-Factor) Lucy Spraggan.
Agent: Sarah Manning
Anstey teaches creative writing for Canterbury Christ Church University and in the community with her own company, Writing Matters. She has been featured in various literary magazines and anthologies, been shortlisted for many prizes, and won the H G Wells Short Story Award. Anstey lives in Kent, UK and is the mother of the singer-songwriter Lucy Spraggan. Her debut upmarket women’s fiction novel THE TRUTHS AND TRIUMPHS OF GRACE ATHERTON is being published by Simon & Schuster in the U.K in January 2019. It is being published under the title GOODBYE, PARIS by Simon & Schuster in the UK in August 2018. Rights have also sold in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain.
Who am I, and why should you care?
My name is Anstey Harris when I'm being a writer, Anstey Spraggan when I'm not, and Mum or Granstey depending who you're talking to. I hope my blog will keep you up-to-date with my writing and book news, keep you entertained with various rantings, ramblings and opinion pieces, and give you some good writing prompts and creative writing tips.
You can learn a little more about me at my Goodreads page or on my Amazon Author page.
Do you run a book club and want me to join your club to talk about my book? Click the button below to contact me!
Quoted in Sidelights: “rather unbelievable gullibility,” , “Harris’ capable prose draws the reader along to see what happens next,” “a very real character.”
“a solid debut.”
Harris, Anstey: GOODBYE, PARIS
Kirkus Reviews. (June 15, 2018):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Harris, Anstey GOODBYE, PARIS Touchstone/Simon & Schuster (Adult Fiction) $26.00 8, 7 ISBN: 978-1-5011-9650-8
A woman has to reassess everything when an unexpected moment of heroism shatters her image of her life in Harris' debut novel.
Grace Atherton is 39 and content with her life. She owns a shop in a little town in Kent, England, where she makes violins and cellos and has a decent-sized home, car, and a good relationship with her longtime boyfriend, David. On a getaway weekend to Paris, David's instinctive reaction to a woman's falling onto the Metro tracks leads to security footage of the couple going viral worldwide. The sudden attention throws a light onto all the secrets David has been keeping and forces Grace to deal with those and secrets from her own past that she has been hiding from for 20 years. With the help of a whimsical old man who frequents her shop and the angst-ridden teenage sales clerk she has befriended, Grace has to pick up the pieces of her life and put them back together in a way that, perhaps, fits even better than before. Though the first third of the novel suffers from Grace's rather unbelievable gullibility, it's saved by the strength of the writing. Even when it's hard to swallow that Grace truly believes what she's saying in her narration, Harris' capable prose draws the reader along to see what happens next. The second half is where Harris really finds her stride, and Grace's rebuilding her life and forming stronger relationships with Nadia and Mr. Williams is where the novel shines. Especially poignant is Grace's reckoning with what had happened her first year of music school and discovering another side of the story. Grace is a very real character even if she is exasperating at times.
A solid debut, if a bit predictable.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Harris, Anstey: GOODBYE, PARIS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 June 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A543008975/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=d81f911f. Accessed 20 Sept. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A543008975
Quoted in Sidelights: “evokes the beauty of playing music in an exquisite way,” the stars of the show.” “annoying” or “predictable” “a lovely summer read.”
Goodbye, Paris - Anstey Harris
August 03, 2018 in Book Reviews, Fiction
I’m so up and down about this novel! In the end I think I give it a solid 3.5 as I enjoyed reading it. It was a lovely summer read, although a little predictable in places, a little over the top in others.
Grace owns a shop where she repairs and builds string instruments. She is also a cellist, but no one really knows this as she hasn’t played for anyone for many, many years. Grace has also been in a relationship with a married man, David, for a long time. David lives in Paris, Grace in Kent, and they see each other on a regular basis, usually in Paris. One day David jumps onto the tracks of the Métro to save a woman who has fallen, and everything changes. (No David doesn’t die).
What I loved were the lush descriptions of Paris and the beautiful descriptions of instruments and classical music. Anstey Harris evokes the beauty of playing music in an exquisite way, and I loved learning all about the absolute skill it takes to create, repair, and love a string instrument. These parts were beautiful. Paris is also my favorite place in the world, so the nostalgia in the descriptions was something I really related to.
What I didn’t love was how bloody selfish Grace is! She seems to walk around in a bubble, unable to actually see what is going on around her. The bubble does burst eventually, but even then she still has to navigate all her own feelings before those of her friends’. I didn’t dislike her though, she grew on me, and I understood a lot of what she was going through. I just feel like she is always being coddled. And honestly, all the drinking she does is really annoying. After a while you start wondering if the final revelation is going to be “I’m an alcoholic” as the author seems to feel the need to list every glass of wine that Grace has ever. It’s a bit strange because it stands out.
I love Grace’s friends, Nadia and Mr Williams. They are the stars of the show for me, friends everyone needs in their lives. They were definitely my favorite characters through and through!
So all in all an enjoyable story, well written, with some annoying parts, and a bit of a predictable finale. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy.
Quoted in Sidelights: “trusting spirit” “keep readers rooting for her.” s “descriptions of mouthwatering food” and portrayal of “the way Grace lovingly crafts her instruments and how she discovers her own self-worth"
Shelf Awareness for Readers for Friday, September 7, 2018
Goodbye, Paris
by Anstey Harris
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"We were staying at David's apartment in Paris the night the woman fell onto the Metro tracks."
The opening line of Anstey Harris's debut reads like the start of a suspense novel, but that's not where Goodbye, Paris goes. What happens next is captured on CCTV and the video goes viral, shining an unwelcome spotlight on David and his many secrets. The fallout shatters the picture that Grace--his girlfriend and the story's narrator--has had about their eight-year-relationship, and their plans for their future. But in her lowest moments, she finds she's not alone. Kindness comes from Mr. Williams, an octogenarian who's a regular at Grace's violin-making and -repair shop, and Nadia, the 17-year-old girl Grace employs at the shop on weekends. Together they help Grace mend the broken pieces of her life, showing her there's more than one kind of family.
Grace repeatedly claims she's neither naive nor stupid, but she appears to be the former when it comes to David. She's mostly isolated--lives alone, doesn't socialize much, her parents are dead and she has no siblings--but these are unconvincing reasons for how an almost 40-year-old can be so gullible and for so long. Her trusting spirit, however, will also keep readers rooting for her in order to see goodness triumph over deception. Though predictable in plot, Paris surprises with where it finds romance--in descriptions of mouthwatering food, the way Grace lovingly crafts her instruments and how she discovers her own self-worth. --Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, blogger at Pop Culture Nerd
Discover: When her lover is involved in an incident that receives media attention, a violin maker finds her life disrupted.