\n\tThis book is based on fact.\n<\/p>\n
\n\t"A young man of humble background, Jean-Baptiste Baratte, is ordered to exhume the vast and ancient cemetery of Les Innocents in the poor Parisian quarter of Les Halles, and demolish the church. No one knows how many bodies are buried there – it is claimed that during one outbreak of the plague the graveyard received 50,000 in less than a month – but it has recently burst its banks, poisoning the city and spreading "moral disturbance".\n<\/p>\n
\n\tBaratte finds that the stink of the dead dominate the quarter, fouling the air and tainting even the breath of those who live there. The vast smoke blackened church that presides over the graveyard obliterates the light. And yet as the young engineer begins the grisly excavations, he finds that the residents of this poor, labrynthine district have a powerful attachment to both.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThe impending revolution hangs over the narrative like the blade of the guillotine to come."\n<\/p>\n
\n\tTaken from a Guardian review <\/em>\n<\/p>\n \n\tAs you will have gathered not a book for the faint hearted.\n<\/p>\n \n\tA mixed reception of thoroughly enjoyed, quite enjoyed and not enjoyed at all. It did seem to us all that it was a weird, rather creepy subject.\n<\/p>\n \n\tWe did agree that it was extremely well written with short, concise sentences. The descriptions were so good we felt that we could hear and smell the things he was describing, it was at once horrific and enthralling. The excavations were done by miners supervised by Jean and his friend who had both been miners. The descriptions of their work, the piles of bones, the transport of these bones to a quarry, the thought of all these men living in tents in the midst of all this- Ugh! The author had obviously done a lot of painstaking research.\n<\/p>\n \n\tThere was a part where Jean was at Versailles and saw the elephant that the King had been given by the King of Siam. The writing about this was so well done and took you into the extremes of Paris and its environs at this time.\n<\/p>\n \n\tWe discussed whether we would recommend this book to a friend – a difficult one due to the macabre subject. It did come out with a good score of 8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This book is based on fact. "A young man of humble background, Jean-Baptiste Baratte, is ordered to exhume the vast and ancient cemetery of Les Innocents in the poor Parisian quarter of Les Halles, and demolish the church. No one knows how many bodies are buried there – it is claimed that during one outbreak of the plague the graveyard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[41],"tags":[98,99,97],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cWjO-7g","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7113,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=7113","url_meta":{"origin":450,"position":0},"title":"FALLING ANGELS by Tracey Chevalier.","author":"Alan Williams","date":"3rd February 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"FALLING ANGELS Tracey Chevalier. This novel tells the story of two families, covering a period from the end of the Victorian and into the Edwardian eras. The author highlights the many social changes through this decade, including the customs and etiquette of mourning and the beginnings of the suffragette movement.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Page Turners"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Page Turners","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=41"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5537,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5537","url_meta":{"origin":450,"position":1},"title":"THE SECRET PLACE by Tana French","author":"Alan Williams","date":"31st January 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 THE SECRET PLACE by Tana French This book is fifth in the Dublin Murder Squad series and although some of the characters can be found in previous novels, it can be read as a stand alone. 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Mahmood is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Page Turners"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Page Turners","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=41"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4085,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=4085","url_meta":{"origin":450,"position":4},"title":"The Muse by Jessie Burton","author":"Alan Williams","date":"30th December 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Muse by Jessie Burton The Muse is a follow up novel to Jessie Burton\u2019s very successful first novel The Miniaturist, which has previously been reviewed by the Page Turners. The story is told in two timelines and centres on two creatively gifted young women, Olive Schloss an artist in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Page Turners"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Page Turners","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=41"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9023,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=9023","url_meta":{"origin":450,"position":5},"title":"Literature’s Most Dastardly Villains","author":"Alan Williams","date":"31st January 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cTHE PAGE TURNERS\u201d Literature's Most Dastardly Villains Another year, another lockdown, another postponed Page Turners meeting, but another opportunity for Book Club members to reflect on characters in books they have read.....and disliked! 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