Civilisation Française
Publisher: Heliotrope Books
When recent college graduate Lily Owens enrolls in the Civilisation Française course at the Sorbonne in 1982, she hopes to put a troubled childhood behind her and find direction for adulthood. She moves into a mansion on the place des Vosges where her job is helping elderly, half-blind Amenia Quinon, another ex-pat American. Amenia is haunted by memories of World War II, as is her Jewish housekeeper, Germaine. The three women live alone in this house of silence and secrets, until Lily surreptitiously lets a love interest move into the empty wing. When Thibaud is joined by others, the abandoned part of the house quickly turns into a squat, upending the lives of the three women, but ultimately bringing them closer together.
More Endorsements…
“Mary Fleming brings a fresh, tragicomic view to the Américaine-in- Paris Novel, exploring the intertwined lives of two expatriates: a rich widow haunted by World War II, and a young woman struggling to overcome a traumatic childhood. Civilisation Française is eloquent, erudite and entertaining.”
““Two women live uneasily on separate floors of a decrepit mansion in Paris.
The younger can’t envision any future for herself. The older woman’s wish to live is failing. Mary Fleming weaves their stories together in Civilisation Française, a haunting novel about the pull of time past and future, and the courage to live fully one’s life and death.””
““Anyone who has spent her junior year abroad (or not) will love this Balzacian tale of a dark old house in Paris, a powerful old woman, strangely closed-off rooms, and a young American heroine with whom to explore the mysteries of French culture. This book will either take you back or introduce you afresh to the wonders of French life.””
“In Mary Fleming’s absorbing and affecting novel, a young American takes a course in French civilization and learns more than she bargains for – about sex, cooking, and a family’s unhappy past – and is the better for it. So is the reader.”
“Mary Fleming’s latest novel Civilisation Française opens with a once young and beautiful, now elderly and almost blind American widow who lives in a magnificent 18th century hôtel particulier on the Place des Vosges getting some unwelcome news. Her nephew has, without her permission, found her a live-in helper, Lily, a jeune américaine studying at the Sorbonne. It’s the oldest story in the world – the nephew impatient to inherit from the old aunt– but with her deep knowledge of French manners and mores and mischievous sense of humor Fleming turns the classic situation on its head. There were so many things I loved about this book: the fresh way Lily moves forward as she observes Paris and its markets and cafés and French men in contrast to her prickly employer who moves backward with her souvenirs of vanished times, good and bad; the secrets, large and small, that the characters live with and keep from one another; the complexity and the burden of French history that governs all. Plus delightful surprises such as Madame’s totally unexpected reaction and solution to the presence of the squatters who invade the vacant rooms of her building. Skillfully crafted and elegant, Civilisation Francaise is a work of grande classe”
What the critics are saying…
““...the setup is intriguing, and readers will want to know the intertwined fates of the two leads.”
“Civilisation Francaise, a rich novel about Paris and Parisian life and about life in general.”
““...the unfolding of events is surprising. The story is also lovely because of the many descriptions of Paris, and explanations of the French way of life at the time, and during the war. It is a lovely book for anyone who loves Paris.””
““Lily, Amenia, and housekeeper Germaine grapple with personal histories and challenges in this beautifully written novel about choosing family, finding home, surviving WWII, learning how to cook, and figuring out one’s path in life.””
“...what marvelous characters exist in the pages of this book....I hated to say goodbye to all three women at the end of the book.”
“. . . a rich human story about love, friendship, growing up — and la civilization française. . . . For me, the main lesson to draw from this story is that it’s never too late — or too early, for that matter — to heal from deep wounds. To at least attempt to understand those who have wounded us, and to forgive. And in that painful process to find — eventually — the great gifts of wisdom, compassion, and peace. In my opinion, that makes this not only a good story; it is an inspiring one.”
“... taut and subtle .... Within its intricate and nuanced portrait of Paris, the novel Civilisation
Française explores compelling alliances and experiences.”
“CIVILISATION FRANÇAISE is an engrossing, powerful story about facing our past, discovering a future, and the meaning of home.”
“A thought-provoking, multilayered look at not only the nuances of French culture, but how two different generations of American expats experience life – with its trials and tribulations – in Paris, the City of Light...A rich and complex novel, Civilisation Française will provoke deep thoughts in the reader on love, loss, and the binds of shared cultural understanding.”
Interviews and Guest Blogs…
“The Job Interview” - Women Writers, Women’s Books
“Book Q&As” - Deborah Kalb
“The Places des Vosges” - Talking Location, Trip Fiction
“One of France’s Best Kept Secrets” - Read Her Like an Open Book
“Seeds of Truth in Fiction” - The Muffin
A Conversation with Laura Furman and Mary Fleming - Necessary Fiction
Spotlight Interview - Five Directions Press
Dear Reader Column - Muffins & Mayhem
Author Interview - Hasty Book List
The Art of Regret
October 2019
In The Art of Regret, a novel by Mary Fleming, late-thirty-something American Trevor McFarquhar is doing his best to lead an aimless and apathetic existence in Paris. Full of resentment and unresolved feelings toward his bourgeois family, and still mourning the long-ago deaths of his young sister and, a year later, his father, Trevor abandoned an early career as a photographer and now half-heartedly runs a bicycle shop, while pursuing various women he terms Casuals. But the 1995 French transport strike and a liaison dangereuse with his sister-in-law upend Trevor’s plan for non-living. Five years later, humbled by his immoral act, tired of his desultory life and actually missing his family, Trevor is given a second chance to find redemption and even love.
Someone Else
2014
Elizabeth Teller, a forty-something Anglo-American living in Paris, has it all: a well-connected French architect husband, four children and a job at a revered French publishing house. But with the sudden appearance of a former lover, a less glorious past comes back to haunt her. The dream life begins to crumble. A darker side of pretty Paris emerges. More info
Praise for Someone Else
“Brew a cup of tea, put on your most comfortable outfit, silence the phone, and read Mary Fleming’s Someone Else.
Elizabeth Teller has carefully constructed a life in a beautiful Paris quartier with her architect husband Lucas, and her four children. She plays the role of perfect wife and mother, and enjoys her work as a busy editor at a large publishing house. She’s learned how to obey the French conventions that guarantee her a place in a prominent family. But when Elizabeth bumps into an old friend on his first trip to Paris, a moral dilemma she’s refused to confront is suddenly unavoidable. Her lovely life begins to crumble and then to break.
Someone Else keeps the reader enthralled and entertained, hoping for the best while fascinated by the consequences of a terrible mistake.”
“Written in a distinctive and luminous style, “Someone Else” is both a meditation on and an evocative portrait of how past events affect and destroy a seemingly perfect marriage and how the consequences will forever alter the lives of the characters — for ultimately, perhaps, more mindful and authentic ones.”
“Everyone carries guilty secrets. Some are slowly forgotten, others lie dormant, as if awaiting their moment to cause havoc. In Mary Fleming’s gripping new novel, Someone Else, Elizabeth Teller ran away from her secret - her betrayal of an American college room-mate in a prank that went horribly wrong – but it catches up with her years later. A long-time resident of Paris, Elizabeth sees an unexpected encounter with her former room-mate as anything but accidental, convinced he has come to exact revenge. Perhaps he has, but Elizabeth misreads the signs. In the comfortable setting of bourgeois Paris, Mary Fleming skilfully guides us through the dark passages where guilt feeds greedily on tortured consciences. After readingSomeone Else, no one will feel their secrets are safe.”