Paris: City of love. City of splendour. City of terror. City of dreams. The epic novel of the most romantic city in the world, from the world’s greatest writer of historical epics. Inspired by the haunting, passionate story of the city of lights, this epic novel weaves a gripping tale of four families across the centuries: from the lies that spawn the noble line of de Cygne to the revolutionary Le Sourds who seek their destruction; from the Blanchards whose bourgeois respectability offers scant protection against scandal to the hard-working Gascons and their soaring ambitions.

The story of Paris bursts to life in the intrigue, corruption and glory of its people. Beloved author Edward Rutherfurd illuminates Paris as only he can: capturing the romance and everyday drama of the men and women who, in two thousand years, transformed a humble trading post on the muddy banks of the Seine into the most celebrated city in the world.

Edward Rutherfurd was born in England, in the cathedral city of Salisbury. Educated at the universities of Cambridge, and Stanford, California, he worked in political research, bookselling and publishing and had his first novel, Sarum, a ten-thousand year story set in the area around the ancient monument of Stonehenge, and Salisbury, published in 1987. It became an instant international bestseller, remaining 23 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List. Since then he has written five more bestsellers: Russka, a novel of Russia; London; The Forest, set in England's New Forest which lies close by Sarum, and two novels which cover the story of Ireland from the time just before Saint Patrick to the twentieth century. In 2009 New York was published, and Edward is hard at work on another big novel at present. His books have been translated into twenty languages.