The Paris Model: A Novel
Svelte and stunning Grace Woods loves her Australian ranch as a child, but when she marries her childhood sweetheart after his return from WWII, she feels stultified. Her husband Jack is domineering, and she takes no pleasure in their sex life. Frustrated, she turns to fashion, and jumps at the opportunity to model for a show in Sydney.
That show attracts the attention of Christian Dior, and Grace soon receives an invitation to model in Paris. Without telling Jack, she absconds and joins the troupe of elite mannequins at the Dior fashion house.
But Grace’s Australian memories continue to haunt her. An older family friend who lived in Sydney disappeared in France during the war, and Grace remains convinced he is alive. She also parted from her mother in a rage and hasn’t spoken since arriving in Paris. Likewise, Grace has had no contact with Jack. As she tries to forge a new life in Paris, she cannot escape the ties of her Australian history. The web draws even tighter when Grace falls into a tightwire game of espionage, endangering herself and those she loves.
The book cover says this novel is based on a true story, but it seems the truth lies mostly in some secrets about Grace’s parentage and the large cast of famous cameo characters. The rest of the improbable and, to this reader’s taste, melodramatic, plot appears to be invention. The novel evokes Australia’s outback and postwar Paris with lovely precision, but the story vacillates between predictable plot tropes and difficult-to-swallow twists of fate.
