I was beginning to feel it would be best not to settle down in areas recognisably Parisian, because places recognisably themselves tend to be fictitious. A wandering writer - a man of a foreign race and culture - is invited to Paris and soon finds himself unwilling to be constrained by the arrangements made on his behalf. He seeks experiences of a truer city. Perhaps that is in the storied metropolis of emblematic landmarks, among its layers of history, romance, literature and great art. Or perhaps the very everyday of the city is where the truth lies - in the interchangeable tourist traps, the esperanto of each Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet. Maybe ''studied closely, its banality unlocks existence''? Taking up residence first in the Chateau Rouge quarter, before floating freely through the city, Red House is a short novel that takes its time, exploring tangents, diversions, side-streets, creeping into new spaces and remote angles, to open up fresh ground and see the city, the experience of travel, tourism, otherness - and experience itself - anew.

Autorentext
Amit Chaudhuri is the author of eight novels, including Sojourn and Friend of My Youth, as well as four books of essays, three books of poems, two works of non-fiction, a collection of short stories, and a critical study of D. H. Lawrence's poetry. He has received the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the Betty Trask Prize, the Encore Prize, the LA Times Book Prize, the James Tait Black Prize, and the Sahitya Akademi Award, among other accolades. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was Professor of Contemporary Literature at the University of East Anglia from 2006 until 2021, and he is Professor of Creative Writing and Director of the Centre for the Creative and the Critical, Ashoka University. He edits literaryactivism.com. He is a vocalist in the North Indian classical tradition and a composer and performer in a celebrated project that brings together different musical traditions.