Book title: THE PARIS FILES
Character: Yousef Al Shami
Yousef Al Shami is the proprietor of a fruit stand at 51 Rue Oberkampf in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. Al-Shami was a key witness in The Paris Files, the case of the disappeared American tourist. He joins us here to discuss the case, his ties to the community, and the never-ending appeal of Paris.
How would you describe your upbringing in the 11th arrondissement?
My mother was an ox. She would rise from bed and touch her toes twenty times, right until her ninetieth year, when her diabetes took her left leg. My scoundrel father had no place in our home from the day in my early childhood when he was caught en flagrante with a cloudy-eyed Yugoslavian on the onion sacks in our storage room. From that day forward my mother and I ran the fruit stand ourselves and when she could not mother me because the demands of commerce grew too high, the people of Rue Oberkampf did. The woman who sat every day on the steps of the public bath and gave me my first cigarette at age nine and made a man of me at age fourteen. I am not a mere resident of this street, I am a paving stone.
Given your love for this street, I’d expect you plan to start your own family here. Is there a Mrs. Al-Shami?
I have romance coursing through my veins in the way of the best Parisian men and that romance has tricked me into the utterance of many a promise over these years. In the throes of lovemaking I’ve made promises to make a wife of a woman, to make a mother of a woman, but the truth is that my ability to sire children was lost on an ill-fated morning picking apples in Switzerland. The last woman who I promised to marry was a Bulgarian with kind eyes and large hands. Her equally large-handed brothers took poorly to my broken promise and since the night those three Balkan men came to my door bearing sabres, I’ve sworn a vow of celibacy.
How do you feel about the building at 44 Rue Oberkampf where the crime took place? Is it upsetting to have something happen right across the street from your business?
The character of this neighborhood has changed over the decades. The women who will trade cigarettes for figs at my fruit stand still lounge all day on the steps of the public baths, but now they scroll through videos on cellular phones instead of reading Balzac. Sometimes they wear trousers made from elasticized fabric. The great sanitization of this street, the addition of vegan restaurants and brunch was caused by exactly the type of people who live at 44 Rue Oberkampf. They don’t create art, they make love to only their spouse, hardly any of them preserve their own beets in preparation for winters.
For years it made me more and more morose, and now suddenly we have this great crime. It stunk of sex and lies and desperation and led me to believe that perhaps the moneyed residents of 44 Rue Oberkampf belong in my corner of Paris after all.
You can’t be saying you take joy in this crime?
Joy? No. I take joy only in morels and in the words of Honoré de Balzac.
Perhaps it would be sensible to change direction. Our readers love to hear about Paris, especially from those who know it as well as you. Let’s do a speed round of questions about Paris.
You want only short answers? Balzac’s La Comédie humaine is composed of 91 works. You should train your mind to read long things.
Ok! What is the best neighborhood to live in Paris?
Rue Oberkampf but we already have enough people, we do not need more.
A fun thing in Paris every visitor should do?
Eat plums, but only when in season.
The most talented performer working in Paris at the moment?
There is a small dog who I occasionally see walk on only two legs. I find him very amusing.
Most romantic place in Paris?
St. Christopher’s Hostel. They charge for beds by the hour. You do not need more than an hour for romance.
Worst part about Paris?
Tourists. And the lights on the Eiffel Tower but those would not be there but for the tourists.
If you had to live in one place in the world outside of Paris, where would it be?
If I were forced to live anywhere but Paris, I’d do what Balzac did. Throw myself off a bridge into the river Loire.
Let’s wrap up with the question we ask all our guests. Mr. Al-Shami, how would you like to be remembered?
I see what trick this is. You expect that I’ll say that I want to be remembered as Balzac was, by turns a hermit and a vagrant. Not so. I want only to be remembered as a great Parisian. A man who sold the tastiest plums, and dared never wear trousers with an elastic waist.
THE PARIS FILES by Eva Jurczyk
A sophisticated, character-driven thriller in which a romantic rendezvous in Paris turns disastrous after the disappearance of a new lover
Genie St. Onge’s heart is broken more often than it’s not—but that doesn’t stop her from diving in head-first when she meets Jacob Ford. Their connection is instantaneous and consuming, and they agree to meet again in Paris. In a heady mix of sugared pastries and rumpled bedsheets, they begin plotting their future together. In the dreamy apartment they’re renting in the 11th arrondissement, they become intoxicated by each other.
Until Jacob disappears.
Genie knows Jacob would never leave her. Not by choice. When phone calls to hospitals turn up nothing, she grows convinced that someone must have taken him. It’s the only explanation.
Under the scrutiny of the French police, however, Genie’s story doesn’t quite hold up—and it sounds like Jacob might not be all he seems, either. Through police interviews with Genie and nearby residents of the 11th arrondissement, the truth remains elusive. She swears has no idea what happened to Jacob – so why doesn’t her story align with anyone else’s?
Thriller Psychological [ Pamela Dorman Books, On Sale: October 6, 2026, Hardcover / e-Book / audiobook, ISBN: 9798217060641 / eISBN: 9798217060658 ]
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About Eva Jurczyk
The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections is Eva’s first book. She lives and works in Toronto, Canada.
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