Impossible City (Paperback)
Paris in the Twenty-First Century
Buy from
An unsparing memoir of the city in the twenty-first century, from a long-time Parisien d'adoption
A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024
A Waterstones Best History Book of 2024 Pick
'Kuper is a shrewd observer [in] this entertaining mix of memoir and anthropology' The Sunday Times
From the bestselling author of Chums comes an explorer's tale of a naïf getting to understand a complex, glittering, beautiful and often cruel city.
Simon Kuper has experienced Paris both as a human being and as a journalist. He has grown middle-aged there, eaten the croissants, taken his children to countless football matches on freezing Saturday mornings in the city's notorious banlieues, and in 2015 lived through two terrorist attacks on his family's neighbourhood. Over two decades of becoming something of a cantankerous Parisian himself, Kuper has watched the city change.
This century, Paris has globalised, gentrified, and been shocked into realising its role as the crucible of civilisational conflict. Sometimes it's a multicultural paradise, and sometimes it isn't. This decade, Parisians have lived through a sequence of shocks: terrorist attacks, record floods and heatwaves, the burning of Notre Dame, the storming of the city by gilets jaunes, and the pandemic. Now, as the Olympics come to town, France is busy executing the 'Grand Paris' project: the most serious attempt yet to knit together the bejewelled city with its neglected suburbs.
This is a captivating memoir of today's Paris without the clichés.
Impossible City (Hardback)
Paris in the Twenty-First Century
Buy from
An unsparing memoir of the city in the twenty-first century, from a long-time Parisien d'adoption
A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024
A Waterstones Best History Book of 2024 Pick
'Kuper is a shrewd observer [in] this entertaining mix of memoir and anthropology' The Sunday Times
From the bestselling author of Chums comes an explorer's tale of a naïf getting to understand a complex, glittering, beautiful and often cruel city.
Simon Kuper has experienced Paris both as a human being and as a journalist. He has grown middle-aged there, eaten the croissants, taken his children to countless football matches on freezing Saturday mornings in the city's notorious banlieues, and in 2015 lived through two terrorist attacks on his family's neighbourhood. Over two decades of becoming something of a cantankerous Parisian himself, Kuper has watched the city change.
This century, Paris has globalised, gentrified, and been shocked into realising its role as the crucible of civilisational conflict. Sometimes it's a multicultural paradise, and sometimes it isn't. This decade, Parisians have lived through a sequence of shocks: terrorist attacks, record floods and heatwaves, the burning of Notre Dame, the storming of the city by gilets jaunes, and the pandemic. Now, as the Olympics come to town, France is busy executing the 'Grand Paris' project: the most serious attempt yet to knit together the bejewelled city with its neglected suburbs.
This is a captivating memoir of today's Paris without the clichés.
Impossible City (Ebook)
Paris in the Twenty-First Century
Buy from
An unsparing memoir of the city in the twenty-first century, from a long-time Parisien d'adoption
A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024
A Waterstones Best History Book of 2024 Pick
'Kuper is a shrewd observer [in] this entertaining mix of memoir and anthropology' The Sunday Times
From the bestselling author of Chums comes an explorer's tale of a naïf getting to understand a complex, glittering, beautiful and often cruel city.
Simon Kuper has experienced Paris both as a human being and as a journalist. He has grown middle-aged there, eaten the croissants, taken his children to countless football matches on freezing Saturday mornings in the city's notorious banlieues, and in 2015 lived through two terrorist attacks on his family's neighbourhood. Over two decades of becoming something of a cantankerous Parisian himself, Kuper has watched the city change.
This century, Paris has globalised, gentrified, and been shocked into realising its role as the crucible of civilisational conflict. Sometimes it's a multicultural paradise, and sometimes it isn't. This decade, Parisians have lived through a sequence of shocks: terrorist attacks, record floods and heatwaves, the burning of Notre Dame, the storming of the city by gilets jaunes, and the pandemic. Now, as the Olympics come to town, France is busy executing the 'Grand Paris' project: the most serious attempt yet to knit together the bejewelled city with its neglected suburbs.
This is a captivating memoir of today's Paris without the clichés.
Impossible City (Audiobook)
Paris in the Twenty-First Century
Buy from
An unsparing memoir of the city in the twenty-first century, from a long-time Parisien d'adoption
A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024
A Waterstones Best History Book of 2024 Pick
'Kuper is a shrewd observer [in] this entertaining mix of memoir and anthropology' The Sunday Times
From the bestselling author of Chums comes an explorer's tale of a naïf getting to understand a complex, glittering, beautiful and often cruel city.
Simon Kuper has experienced Paris both as a human being and as a journalist. He has grown middle-aged there, eaten the croissants, taken his children to countless football matches on freezing Saturday mornings in the city's notorious banlieues, and in 2015 lived through two terrorist attacks on his family's neighbourhood. Over two decades of becoming something of a cantankerous Parisian himself, Kuper has watched the city change.
This century, Paris has globalised, gentrified, and been shocked into realising its role as the crucible of civilisational conflict. Sometimes it's a multicultural paradise, and sometimes it isn't. This decade, Parisians have lived through a sequence of shocks: terrorist attacks, record floods and heatwaves, the burning of Notre Dame, the storming of the city by gilets jaunes, and the pandemic. Now, as the Olympics come to town, France is busy executing the 'Grand Paris' project: the most serious attempt yet to knit together the bejewelled city with its neglected suburbs.
This is a captivating memoir of today's Paris without the clichés.
Reviews for Impossible City
New Statesman
Independent
Irish Times
Washington Post
Andrew Martin Literary Review
Foreign Affairs
Times Literary Supplement
Observer
Los Angeles Review of Books
Kirkus Review
Economist
'Best summer books of 2024' Financial Times
Irish Examiner
Mark Brocklesby Jersey Evening Post
Praise for Chums:
'A searing onslaught on the smirking Oxford insinuation that politics is all just a game. It isn't. It matters
'
Matthew Parris
Matthew Syed Sunday Times
Lynn Barber Spectator
Richard Beard New Statesman
Hugo Rifkind The Times
Simon Kuper
Simon Kuper is a British author and journalist for the Financial Times. Kuper was born in Uganda of South African parents in 1969, and moved to the Netherlands as a child. He studied History and German at Oxford University, and attended Harvard University as a Kennedy Scholar. He has written for the Observer, The Times and the Guardian, and also writes regularly for Dutch newspapers. He lives in Paris with his family.
Related books
World Cup Fever
Simon Kuper
The story of how football transformed the world, told through nine World Cups – by one of our most talented football writers
Good Chaps
Simon Kuper
From the bestselling author of Chums, a powerful analysis of how corruption shapes British politics
The Happy Traitor
Simon Kuper
A 'humane and informative' (according to John Le Carré) biography of George Blake, the most notorious double agent in British history….