‘The Parisian’ is a slow-burning treat to be savored

Let’s get this out of the way: The Parisian, the first novel by Isabella Hammad, is not a page-turner. That’s not an insult. If there’s a slow food movement, perhaps there should be a slow read movement: books meant to savor, not gulp.

With historical sweep and sentences of startling beauty, Hammad has written the story of a