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Perestroika in Paris
2020
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Library Journal Review
As twilight descends on the Paris racetrack, a spirited filly named Perestroika (Paras for short) pushes against her unlatched stall door and walks into the City of Light. In her ambles, she befriends a dignified, beautiful dog named Frida, once companion to a street performer and now on her own. As they camp out on the Champs de Mars--a comfortably accommodating place, though thoroughly Thoroughbred Paras finds the carousel horses puzzlingly stolid--they meet querulous ducks Sid and Nancy and full-of-himself raven Raoul, even as Paras's owners desperately hunt for their beloved horse. Paras is fed oats and apples by a bakeshop assistant (Frida has her own singular way of getting and paying for food) and meets a lad named Étienne, who lives a solitary life with his great-grandmama in a decaying mansion. Étienne manages to lead Paras home, leaving the birds in a tizzy and Frida circling the city to figure out how to reclaim her friend. VERDICT All's well that ends well in this delightful yet never treacly celebration of interspecies cooperation from Pulitzer Prize winner Smiley. A bright and hopeful story that gently shares our need to belong.
Publishers Weekly Review
Fans of Pulitzer winner Smiley (A Thousand Acres) won't be surprised to find a horse in her fanciful latest; this time out it's a talking racehorse named Perestroika. Paras, as the horse is known, wanders out of her stable and finds herself in Paris's Place du Trocadéro, where she meets Frida, a shorthaired German pointer who understands money and uses it to buy food for Paras and herself. There are no yellow vest protestors in Smiley's idyllic Paris, where shopkeepers know all their customers and happily make change for well-behaved Frida. Paras was happy at the track, but she's too curious to stay there (as Smiley indicates perhaps too often), and in her fable-like travels around Paris she encounters a wise raven who dispenses advice, an eight-year-old orphan who can hide a horse, and plenty of happy endings--not just for the animals, but for the people they encounter, especially if they, like Paras, are open to seeing the wonders of the world. As relationships deepen between animals and humans in their exploration of where to call home, Smiley steers them toward a satisfying feel-good ending. Relentlessly upbeat--there are no villains here, and even dogs and rats cooperate--this is the perfect book for those for whom the real world, wracked with pandemic and politics, has become something to avoid. (Dec.)
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