Paris Noir: The Suburbs

by Hervé Delouche (Editor), Cloé Mehdi (contributor), Karim Madani (contributor)

Following the success of Paris Noir, the Akashic Noir Series has expanded to include the famously diverse and sometimes controversial suburbs of this legendary city.

Featuring brand-new stories by: Cloé Mehdi, Karim Madani, Insa Sané, Christian Roux, Marc Villard, Jean-Pierre Rumeau, Timothée Demeillers, Rachid Santaki, Marc Fernandez, Guillaume Balsamo, Anne Secret, Anne-Sylvie Salzman, and Patrick Pécherot. (All stories were written in French and translated into English by Katie Shireen Assef, David Ball, Nicole Ball, and Paul Curtis Daw.)

From the introduction by Hervé Delouche:

The term Greater Paris is in vogue today, for it has an administrative cachet and seems to denote a simple extension of the capital—as if a ravenous Paris need only extend her web. However, it was not our goal to embrace the tenets of the metro area’s comprehensive plan, aka the Grand Projet, envisioned as a future El Dorado by the planners and developers. Rather, our aim was to depict the Parisian suburbs in all their plurality and diversity. Without pretending to encompass every spot on the map, we instead opted to give voice and exposure to the localities chosen by the writers who have been part of this adventure. Thus, we decided to adopt the word “suburbs”— in the plural, obviously, for the periphery of the capital is not a homogeneous bloc, nor is it reducible to a cliché like “the suburban ring” . . . Here are thirteen stories, decidedly noir, to be savored without sugar or sweetener.

I am not Paris / Choé Mehdi
The Morillon Houses / Karim Madani
Seeing is believing / Insa Sané
The metamorphosis of Emma F. / Christian Roux - Beneath the Périphérique / Marc Villard
The Donkey Cemetery / Jean-Pierre Rumeau
Pantin, really / Timothée Demeillers
To my last breath / Rachid Santaki
The baroness / Marc Fernandez
Men at work : date of completion, February 2027 / Guillaume Balsamo
The showdows of the Trapèze / Anne Secret
Strange martyrs / Anne-Sylvie Salzman
The day Johnny died / Patrick Pécherot

Genres: Fiction, Noir

280 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2022

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most Of us still think of Paris as the glorious city of light with the glitzy shops on the Champs Elysee and the fancy snooty restaurants. Noir Paris the Suburbs offers us thirteen glimpses of the ring of “suburbs” surrounding the city center. These are more housing projects than new single family developments and the native French are vastly outnumbered by the immigrants from Algeria, Morocco, Albania, and Turkey. Crime is rampant and the drug gangs rule the streets and the alleys. This collection of incredibly well-written stories by s variety of writers, expertly translated into English, shows us the desperation of the youth who can’t escape the hell thats been created, the resentment they have toward the rest of polite French society, and the sense of no way out that fuels so many. They turn on each other. They beg in subway tunnels. They take hostages in what last power grab. Sometimes they even make it out to the countryside but there’s no peace there either, just more of the jungle that rips the flesh from your bones and leaves them wary, untrusting, and ready to defend themselves against anyone.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

PARIS NOIR: THE SUBURBS is edited by Herve’ Delouche.
Stories are translated by Katie Shireen Assef, David Ball, Nicole Ball and Paul Curtis Daw.

Akashic Books publishes this award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with BROOKLYN NOIR. Each title includes all new stories, each one set in a distinct location within the geographical area of the book.
PARIS: THE SUBURBS (like all the titles in this Noir series) contains a map highlighting all the areas/locations where the stories take place; a Table of Contents; an Introduction and an About the Contributors section.
The very talented authors and translators of PARIS: THE SUBURBS include:
Katie Shireen Assef David Ball Nicole Ball
Guillaume Balsamo Paul Curtis Daw Timothee Demeillers
Herve’ Delouche Marc Fernandez Karim Madani
Chloe’ Mehdi Patrick Pecherot Christian Roux
Jean-Pierre Rumeau Anne-Sylvie Salzman Insa Sane’
Rachid Santaki Anne Secret Marc Villard

The Introduction always sets the tone of the book and its location. The Introduction is a highlight (for me) of all the titles (of which there are over 100).
All the stories have elements of classic Noir. (Noir is a literary genre with strong elements of criminality, cruelty, depravity, jealousy, despair. Noir can be bizarre, dark, cynical, with often bleak and sleazy settings.) It is not for the faint-hearted!
I have read many of the titles in this series and my favorite ‘parts’ of the books continue to be the map, the short bios of the contributors and, of course, the stories themselves. I like that every title is ‘set up’ the same way - it is very easy to navigate.

There are 13 stories in PARIS: THE SUBURBS divided into four parts.
Part I: The insulted and the rebellious
Part II: Attempts at Escape
Part II: Scarfaces of the suburbs
Part IV: Ghosts from the past
All the stories are excellent. Words that come to mind while reading include sad; deceit; betrayal; jilted lover; bizarre; disgusting.
A stand-out quote (p. 67) “We have eyes for seeing…..but we never envision the worst.”
My thanks to Akashic Books for sending me this ARC (Advance Reading Copy).This Title and the Noir series - both are highly recommended. ****

[EuroHackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book courtesy of LibraryThing Early Reviewers and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

3.5 stars. This was an interesting collection of short stories, all set in the "suburbs" of Paris. The stories are divided into 4 categories: The Insulted & the Rebellious; Attempts at Escape; Scarfaces of the Suburbs; and Ghosts from the Past.

Part 1 - The Insulted & the Rebellious leans hard into the grimdark and fatalism facets of noir. We're talking straight up "life sucks for reasons you can't control and then you die, usually violently." The first two stories are extremely topical to 2021, and I didn't particularly care to read what amounts to issuefic, with characters who feel like the only agency they have is violence. There is no sense of justice or justification of their actions - they're angry, they retaliate. The third story in this section was better, with a very interesting metaphor of what we do/can/don't/can't see, but my favorite of this section was definitely "The Metamorphosis of Emma F." by Christian Roux. The main character is just as awful as the other MCs, but there is a sense not only of justification of her actions, but of the story coming full circle in a meaningful way.

Part 2 - Attempts at Escape definitely develops the cynicism of noir. Everyone is attempting to escape something - someone, some place, some situation - which made for interesting reading. I found the second story, "The Donkey Cemetery" by Jean-Pierre Rumeau, deeply disturbing, and not in a good way. My favorite of this group was the final one, "Pantin, Really" by Timotheé Demeillers, a story which is enveloped by a clash of cultures the MC is seeking to escape.

Part 3 - Scarfaces of the Suburbs was the strongest section IMO, perhaps because these tales conform to a more recognizable meaning of "noir" than the others. "The Baroness" by Marc Fernandez was a tasty little tale with an appropriately twisted ending; "Men at Work" by Guillaume Balsano finds us in the midst of a trio of drug dealers following the case of the mysterious Ivry Strangler, whose murderous attacks escalate beyond comprehension of, at least, the idea that only one person killing so many people.

I anticipated that Part 4 - Ghosts from the Past would be my favorite section, given my love of vintage noir from the 1930s and 1940s, but I felt this majority of this section fell victim to literary fiction BS. Only the first story, "The Shadows of the Trapeze" by Anne Secret, fit the bill for me, but even it had a rather incomprehensible ending as in order for the shoe-horned-in romance to work, the killer couldn't be the most obvious suspect.

All in all, I enjoyed this more than my previous encounter with this series, and I look forward to exploring more, especially of the "Classic Stories" variety.

[Les Gehman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paris Noir: The Suburbs is another solid entry in the Noir series from Akashic Books. As with other entries in the series, these authors do a great job of evoking the feel of the neighborhoods where their stories take place. All of the stories are very good, but my favorites are "Seeing is Believing" by Insa Sane and "The Shadows of the Trapeze" by Anne Secret.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Noir fiction is a subset of the broader crime fiction genre. Noir stories typically feature gritty urban settings, morally compromised protagonists, dark mysteries, and a bleak outlook on human nature.

I looked up what the word "Noir" means in fiction and it helps to define what the stories in this book are about. I already found them dark--in terms of the themes, the characters are usually in really bad life circumstances and of course each story involves some kind of crime. Sometimes it feels justified, at other times not. The book has a map on the front flap with a map showing the location of each suburb, very useful in my opinion.

When people say Paris, they usually mean the city proper and rarely the suburbs. But having lived in the Paris suburbs I think they are just as much as part of the city because they contribute to its character and the city influences the suburbs. It was really fun to read a story set in a different suburb, some of which I have been to. The historical bits of information from each story is a nice backdrop to learning of how each came to being and the origins of the communities living in those suburbs.

Paris -- in this case I mean the city itself and the suburbs is very multicultural, there are Europeans of different origin, North Africans, Asians, Africans basically people from all over the world. This is not always apparent when the city is depicted in movies or books. So this book does something other media does not.

I liked the following stories:

The first story focused on terrorism as a theme, and so timely because there have been multiple incidents in France: I am not Paris by Cloé Mehdi, Fleury-Mérogis. The title is a clever play on "Je suis Charlie" used after the Paris-Hebdo attacks, except it is a negation, "Je ne suis pas Paris" i.e. I am not Paris.

Pantin, Really by Timothée Demeillers,Pantin: this story was a surprise because it focuses on immigrants from the Balkans, Kosovo, Albania. The story of a young man smuggled into the Schengen area by a cousin and living in hiding because he is on the run from people who want to kill him because of something he did back in Albania. The tension throughout this story was perfect, the imagery makes the reader feel as if they are right there as the events unfold.

The Metamorphosis of Emma F. by Christian Roux,Mantes-la-Jolie: this was really dark and there were times I found it hard to read. But the atmosphere really defines the noir genre for me. The kidnapping of a young woman by a very disturbed person ending in her demise. The lead-up to that is and the reasons for the kidnapping are where the story is.

The Morillon Houses: by Karim Madani, Montreuil: set in the high rises of the projects in Montreuil, this was amusing because in there it features an unusual pet, a goat. It can be surmised as the chronicles or a day in the life of a small time drug dealer.

Also Seeing is Believingby Issa Sané, Sarcelles: I read the book over a long period of time so I do not recall the details of this story but recall that it reveals the struggles of someone who is trying to make a troubled neighbourhood better against opposition of darker forces.

The story The Baroness by Marc Fernandez, Neuilly-sur-Seine was a necessary addition. In my mind the french version of this story would be titled "La Daronne". This is a suburb of the well heeled in society unlike the other stories that feature people in poor projects and cités, this has a well to do lady in the drug business. Very entertaining to read and for me the bonus was that I have been to Neuilly which really brought some of the descriptions to life.

A story with an unexpected twist you do not see coming is "The Shadows of the Trapèze" by Anne Secret, Boulogne-Billancourt. The point of view shifts between present day and the past as Irène tries to unravel her father's murder in 1972. Was he killed by the Maoists? Or someone with a personal grudge? Could it be his mother's lover maybe, a man she recalls seeing her with as a child? When the truth is revealed, you don't see it coming. Spoiler: it was his mother who he had told that he was leaving to go live in Flins with a coworker he had fallen in love with at the Renault factory. This was simple and superb.

This is a book I recommend because it really does capture a bit of character from each neighbourhood and makes them come alive on the pages. Sometimes I wished it was possible to see the original French versions of the stories because there are places the English feels abit clumsy. But all in all, a good and enjoyable collection.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this latest collection of noir stories from Akashic Books. They are bleak and gray, but many of them have wonderful, unique characters, and several have clever twists I never anticipated. As with most short story collections, a few were disappointing for me, but their formulas may be perfect for another reader.

I found myself confused by many of the stories in Part I: The Insulted and the Rebellious, but I still enjoyed them, and really loved the repeated refrain in "Seeing is Believing" by Insa Sane. "The Metamorphosis of Emma F" by Christian Roux was devious, but used over the top vulgar language that ruined the story for me.

The three stories in Part II: Attempts at Escape were all very different, but still good. "Beneath the Peripherique" by Marc Villard would have been perfect, IMO, if it had ended two pages earlier. I hated the ending.

All of the stories in Part III: Scarfaces of the Suburbs were delightful (can you say that about a collection of stories peopled with murderers, thieves, and prostitutes??), and this was probably my favorite section.

Part IV: Ghosts from the Past contained some of the saddest stories. I wouldn't have chosen to end with "The Day Johnny Died" by Patrick Pecherot. I probably would have led the section with that and ended with "The Shadows of the Trapeze" by Anne Secret, as I found that one a little less hopeless and prefer to end a collection with at least a glimmer of hope.

Regardless, it's a great volume of stories and I am so grateful to both LibraryThing and Akashic Books for this copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Miriam Downey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read my full review here: http://mimi-cyberlibrarian.blogspot.c...

Why did the Baroness engage in the drug trade? “I wanted to spice up my life.”

Why do I read noir fiction, especially the noir that comes from the Akashic Noir Series? Because I want to spice up my life! I am not sure, however, that this particular iteration of the series, Paris Noir: The Suburbs, will spice up life too much. Dirty, gritty, and crime-laden, indeed the stories are that, but I was disappointed that they were not very intriguing or immersive. Not even the story about the Baroness. Having just read and reviewed Palm Springs Noir, which I really enjoyed, I was a bit disappointed.

The editor says that the goal of the book “was to depict the Parisian suburbs in all their plurality and diversity.” Thus, the editor elected to let the authors pick the suburb they wanted to depict in the story each had in mind. The stories in these settings are not the cozy neighborhoods Americans connect with the term “suburb”, but factory sites, run-down apartments, and neighborhood dives. The editor says, “When the suburbs are dumping grounds for the excluded, they breed insulted and rebellious individuals.” Many of the characters in the stories are just that—few are appealing at all.

It was hard to get involved in the thirteen stories in the anthology. If you want to delve into the Akashic Noir series, I would not start with Paris Noir: The Suburbs. The Publishers Weekly reviewer suggests that “this entry in this acclaimed series is only average at best.”

I am moving on to Denver Noir, which will be coming out soon. At least, the scenery there is beautiful.

[Kerry Pickens]

Noir is having a resurgence, mostly because it is protest literature. I have been reading this series of Akashic Noir books based on different cities, and this one in particular Suburban Paris had me reflecting on what noir means. Typically, Noir stories provide a stage the protagonist (think Nick in Casablanc) to reveal there is little boundary between the hero and the criminal if line exists at all. It’s a nihilistic world view based in an urban environment where survival is the objective, not hoping that world will change. Usually the hero solves a mystery or provides a service that allows criminals to be charged (or refugees to escape to safety). The anarchist act is believing that sticking up for yourself and others will make a difference in the world. I am struggling with the stories in this book because although the settings are often based on refugees living in a bleak environment, I don’t see any real plot resolution here. There is no protagonist that takes it upon himself to protest the squalid conditions and take heroic actions to make a change. The purpose, at least for me, of reading collections is I often discover new writers, or in some cases find a gem of a story by a favorite writer.

[Natalia Weissfeld · Rating 4 out of 5]

-ARC provided by publisher in exchange for honest review-

PARIS NOIR. THE SUBURBS is an upcoming collection (Feb 2022) of short stories set in the highly diverse Greater Paris. Each and every one of the thrirteen stories of this anthology tells a dark and sinister tale about life and death in the Parisian suburbs and starkly shows the violence and corruption of a society that cannot find a way to integrate its own plurality. really enjoyed these stories and hope that this Noir collection keeps growing. Check out the publisher's catalog to see the other Noir anthologies that they have (more than 100 to date and others forthcoming!) So, if you are in the mood for good noir short stories, this is definitely for you. And follow my advice! Take a look at the Akashic Noir series!!

[JP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compared to other books in this series, this collection struck me as more bleak. Many of the characters are downtrodden, often coming from tragic family origins. I would have preferred more range of plot styles. The stories are well written, even through the translations. I noted a couple authors I would watch for again, but this collection would not be the first I'd recommend. I did appreciate that I now have some sense of Paris beyond the most famous city areas. The stories are all set in "Greater Paris." I don't know Paris well enough to know the full range, but nearly all of the featured areas seemed to be gentrifying neighborhoods or crime-ridden enclaves.

[Eileen · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

Contents
I Am Paris (3.75 stars)
Morillon Houses (3.5 stars)
Seeing Is Believing (3.5 stars)
The Metamorphosis of Emma F. (1 star)
Beneath the Périphérique (2.5 stars)
The Donkey Cemetary (2 stars)
Pantin, Really (3 stars)
To My Last Breath (2 stars)
The Baroness (3.25 stars)
Men at Work (2.5 stars)
The Shadows of the Trapeze (3.75 stars)
Strange Martyrs (2 stars)
The Day Johnny Died (3.25 stars)

[Camille · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un ensemble de nouvelles de qualité variables.

[Rosie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice collection of stories, surprisingly varied, the translations are weak and sometimes frustrating at times.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, presenting totally different face if Paris. different authors, but writing about the same- violence, lack of perspective, dark fatum hanging over the heads of stories heroes.