Delicious..
Five floors, one building, a therapist and a most unusual form of therapy. Delicious and entertaining with a narrative laced with wry humour and a cast of eclectic and eccentric characters populating an engaging plot which takes a wholly unexpected dark turn. Just wonderful and beautifully translated from the French.

Bringing his trademark style and charming whimsy, Antoine Laurain’s new novel of intrigue, murder and neighbourly curiosity is sure to delight fans old and new. Nathalia, a young photographer, has been seeing a therapist. Having accidentally photographed a murder, she finds that she can no longer do her job. Instead, Doctor Faber suggests that she write about the neighbours she idly observes in the building across the street. But as these written snapshots become increasingly detailed, he starts to wonder how she can possibly know so much about them. With each session, Doctor Faber and his mysterious patient will get closer and closer to the truth. But are the stories Nathalia submits each week as she claims... Bestselling author Antoine Laurain serves up a dose of suspense and intrigue in Rear Window with a Parisian heart.

Loved it. Will recommend to others

Read this one while doing cardio at the gym. The short chapters made this one a breezy read. The structure of how the murder unfolds was unique enough for me to be turning the page, my head was filled with theories. I also appreciate the eccentric relationship Nathalia and Doctor Faber had. This was was both fun and elusive. I greatly enjoyed reading it!

I received an ARC from NetGalley and I'm willingly leaving a review
Well-written, with a few twists here and there. I have to say that the author could have found any other names to drop on us; I was not impressed. I think I loved Belphégor's story best. Sometimes the flow of the story has neither head nor tail and it was confusing - maybe because I got an advanced copy? There's a friendship that is building and it leaves you with a HFN at the end.

Really enjoyed this. Maybe not as much as previous Laurain works, but still enjoyed it. Short and snappy read that keeps the reader interested and leaves a lot to think about. The different perspectives with the letters worked well.

I loved the cover and the title. Windows intrigue me. Maybe it was foolish of me to request a book just because of the cover and the title. Because I couldn't get into the writing or storytelling or the characters. A photographer has captured a murder and then she feels depressed and visits a therapist. But we don’t see the murder. The person just says it to the therapist. And then begins a pointless kind of activity that, according to the therapist, will improve her condition. Maybe it would, I don’t know because I lost interest. I was not interested in knowing what she writes about people living in her building.

Thank you for the copy. Sorry it didn’t work for me.

French Windows is a novella by Antoine Laurain. It is the story of Nathalia, a photographer, who begins seeing a psychiatrist, Dr. Faber. She starts therapy because she is no longer able to work after photographing a murder. The premise of this story is very similar to Alfred Hitchcock’s film, Rear Window, which was based on a short story. Antoine Laurin, the author, has revised the story to take place in Paris in modern times. Unfortunately, there was little mention of Paris, which would have been more interesting to me.

Dr. Faber asks Nathalia to write stories about each of the neighbors in a nearby building, and each story becomes the subject of a subsequent therapy session. The line between fiction and reality is blurred, and Dr. Faber is no longer sure if these stories are invented or real. The reader finds a surprise ending as the stories wrap up with the occupant of the fifth floor apartment.

I enjoy reading any stories set in Paris, and I liked the quirky anecdotes Nathalia wrote about her neighbors. I found the character of Dr. Faber to be arrogant and a bit tedious, although he has an important role in the story. From a technical standpoint, my advance copy had no formatting or chapter divisions. I found that extremely hard to read. This was an intriguing novella but not one that I greatly enjoyed.

Thank you to Antoine Laurin, Pushkin Press, and NetGalley for an advance reader’s copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Good, fun short story. I loved reading through the whole things & learning things along the way! The ending I wasn’t expecting

Nathalie does snapshots of people’s lives. Those she can see from her own flat, going up the entire five floors and puts together a real life peep vicariously into what is going on, including a murder. The book is very French in flavor though that is not an apt description on my part. The stories are very different in both the telling and the listening to, and seem somehow different.

Dr Fabre is the therapist but one never knows whether the stories are true or not or whether Nathalie is maneuvering the older man for reasons of her own. The final story is the quirkiest and the end.

Entertaining and a quick read.

A photographer finds she has accidently captured a murder in her pictures, and starts seeing a therapist to make sense of it all. She tells some interesting stories about the inhabitants of a block of flats, with a twist at the end of the short novel. Easy to read, but nothing overly engaging. The author has clearly taken the idea from Hitchcock's Rear Window, and it just didn't capture my attention enough for to actually care about any of the characters.

Elegant, charming, and quintessentially French 🪟🥖. French Windows is a delightful escape to Parisian life, full of wit, romance, and whimsical storytelling. Antoine Laurain captures the beauty of unexpected encounters and the magic of the everyday with his signature style. I adored the quirky characters and atmospheric setting. A perfect read for fans of feel-good, romantic Parisian tales.

Nathalia Guitry, a once successful photographer, is shaken after accidentally capturing a murder on camera. Struggling creatively, her therapist Dr. Faber, suggests a writing exercise: she should invent stories about the residents in the building opposite her, one floor at a time. As Nathalia weaves detailed narratives about her eclectic Parisian neighbors, the line between fiction and reality begins to blur, leaving Dr. Faber questioning what’s true. But when she reaches the final floor, it’s the doctor who must confront the truth.

This book is the perfect length, longer than a short story but shorter than your average novel, which made it feel just right. The pacing was spot on, giving enough time to build suspense without ever dragging.
The murder mystery itself was unique and cleverly written. I especially enjoyed the French setting, it added a charming atmosphere that perfectly suited the novel. And the twist at the end was completely unexpected and well executed.
If you're looking for a smart, well-paced mystery with a touch of European charm and an unexpected twist, this is definitely worth the read.

Thank you NetGalley and Pushkin Press for the ARC!

In a tight 208 pages, the Laurain fully realized five characters in short vignettes that felt like entire books within a book. I'd love to read more about every character he introduced. This book felt really fresh in a world of formulaic mysteries.

A strangely pointless crime novel with all the misogynistic vibes of old film noir movies, so it took me out a moment when the narrator mentioned Instagram. I've heard of backstreet dentists but never backstreet therapists, as our protagonist (who takes cash and no ID) constantly questions if his patients are lying to him.

When Nathalia Guitry goes to see Dr Faber she admits that she feels that she has lost her talent as a photographer. He gets her to do an exercise writing a story about the people in the flats she can see from her windows, a floor a week. Each floor has a tale of transformation and redemption - except the 4th floor where the occupant only comes for fashion week.
It's difficult to decide if the stories are truth or fiction, Dr Faber checks that the people exist, but he can't prove any facts. That is until he can.
A short look into Parisian life through other people's eye.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book of interconnected short stories, linked with the tale of a psychotherapist and his patient. How much does the patient really know about her neighbours and how much is fantasy? And what other secrets is she keeping?

A recommended read for lovers of character led fiction.

3.5 stars.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing a free ecopy of the book.

This book felt like people-watching in Paris with a glass of wine and zero responsibilities.

The vibes are immaculate. A woman staring out her window making up stories about her neighbours, relatable. The writing is effortlessly cool and has that quirky feel like you're in a French movie.

But honestly, not much really happens plot-wise. It's more about the vibe than actual action. Some of the neighbours’ stories are fun, while others are pretty forgettable. Nathalia is mysterious, which is cool, but she’s also a bit hard to connect with.

I love such an easy read and still enticing. I wasn’t expecting the plot twist, it really took me by surprise!!!
I’ll keep reading Antoine Laurain.

Nathalia visits Dr Faber, a therapist, she needs help as she has stopped taking photographs. Her last photos was of a murder. Now all she does is watch people, particularly her neighbours opposite. Dr Faber asks her to write what she observes and so commences five weeks of stories, one for each floor.
The unexpected turn of the story took me totally by surprise I found this a very engaging tale which is beautifully written. My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc.

I've been curious about this author for quite some time, so I was pleased to explore this Parisian neighbourhood with Antoine Laurain. At first I thought French Windows was an inventive way to bring together a small collection of short stories, but it's actually more than that - a genuine novel, given the way it ends.

Parisian photographer Nathalia Guitry can no longer do her job, so she goes to see local therapist Dr Faber. They quickly get to the bottom of her problem. She has lost her love of photography because the very last photograph she took was of a murder. But how to help her? When Dr Faber learns that she enjoys writing and has been spending her days staying at home and observing her neighbours in the north wing of the building (through their windows), he comes up with the idea of getting her to write about life on each floor. It can be true or made up, but each therapy session is to be accompanied by one of Natalia's stories, beginning with the ground floor and working upwards.

The stories are quite diverse and I enjoyed them all. This is where I found the quirkiness I'd been expecting. Then when Nathalia reaches the fifth floor with her stories, Dr Faber quickly understands that they have uncovered the root of her problem.

This was a memorable, short novel and I will definitely be exploring more of Laurain's work.