{"title":"Thaddeus Carhart","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"piano-shop-on-the-left-bank-book-thaddeus-carhart-9780375503047","title":"The Piano Shop on the Left Bank","description":"Walking his two young children to school every morning, Thad Carhart passes an unassuming little storefront in his Paris neighborhood. Intrigued by its simple sign--Desforges Pianos--he enters, only to have his way barred by the shop's imperious owner. Unable to stifle his curiosity, he finally lands the proper introduction, and a world previously hidden is brought into view. Luc, the atelier's master, proves an indispensable guide to the history and art of the piano. Intertwined with the story of a musical friendship are reflections on how pianos work, their glorious history, and stories of the people who care for them, from amateur pianists to the craftsmen who make the mechanism sing. The Piano Shop on the Left Bank is at once a beguiling portrait of a Paris not found on any map and a tender account of the awakening of a lost childhood passion.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eThe Piano Shop on the Left Bank\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Carhart's] writing is fluid and lovely enough to lure the rustiest plunker back to the piano bench and the most jaded traveler back to Paris.\u003cbr\u003e-\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle \u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eCaptivating . . .  Carhart] joins the tiny company of foreigners who have written of the French as verbs. . . . What he tries to capture is not the sight of them, but what they see.\u003cbr\u003e-\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThoroughly engaging . . . In part it is a book about that most unpredictable and pleasurable of human experiences, serendipity. . . . The book is also about something more difficult to pin down, friendship and community.\u003cbr\u003e-\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eCarhart writes with a sensuousness enhanced by patience and grounded by the humble acquisition of new insight into music, his childhood, and his relationship to the city of Paris.\u003cbr\u003e-\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOKS OF THE YEAR BY \u003ci\u003eTHE WASHINGTON POST BOK WORLD\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49566101274897,"sku":"CIN0375503048G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50350721925393,"sku":"CIN0375503048A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50406112887057,"sku":"CIN0375503048VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50832392683793,"sku":"GOR002602419","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51143754711313,"sku":"GOR014184942","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52836640325905,"sku":"GOR014635357","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0375503048.jpg?v=1750845717"},{"product_id":"finding-fontainebleau-book-thaddeus-carhart-9780525428800","title":"Finding Fontainebleau","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the French Heritage Literary Award \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA beguiling memoir of a childhood in 1950s France from the much-admired \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Piano Shop on the Left Bank\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLike the castle,  Carhart's] memoir imaginatively and smoothly integrates multiple influences, styles and whims.\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFor a young American boy in the 1950s, Fontainebleau was a sight both strange and majestic, home to a continual series of adventures: a different language to learn, weekend visits to nearby Paris, family road trips to Spain and Italy. Then there was the ch teau itself: a sprawling palace once the residence of kings, its grounds the perfect place to play hide-and-seek. The curiosities of the small town and the time with his family as expats left such an impression on him that thirty years later Carhart returned to France with his wife to raise their two children. Touring Fontainebleau again as an adult, he began to appreciate its influence on French style, taste, art, and architecture. Each trip to Fontainebleau introduces him to entirely new aspects of the ch teau's history, enriching his memories and leading him to Patrick Ponsot, the head of the ch teau's restoration, who becomes Carhart's guide to the hidden Fontainebleau. \u003cbr\u003e What emerges is an intimate chronicle of a time and place few have experienced. In warm, precise prose, Carhart reconstructs the wonders of his childhood as an American in postwar France, attending French schools with his brothers and sisters. His firsthand account brings to life nothing less than France in the 1950s, from the parks and museums of Paris to the rigors of French schooling to the vast ch teau of Fontainebleau and its village, built, piece by piece, over many centuries. \u003ci\u003eFinding Fontainebleau\u003c\/i\u003e is for those captivated by the French way of life, for armchair travelers, and for anyone who has ever fallen in love with a place they want to visit over and over again.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49788118597905,"sku":"CIN0525428801G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50126702575889,"sku":"GOR009139244","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50440760459537,"sku":"CIN0525428801A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52104548417809,"sku":"CIN0525428801VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0525428801.jpg?v=1751103942"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-thaddeus-carhart.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}