The Woman in the FifthThe Woman in the Fifth

"American novelist Tom Ricks ... arrives in Paris determined to renew a relationship with his estranged wife and daughter. When a longed-for meeting goes poorly, he ends up in a seedy hostel on the outskirts of the city. Unable to pay for his room and board, he agrees to work as a night guard at a warehouse or the proprietor ... and spends the hours writing elaborate, imaginative letters to his daughter. One evening, after he's invited to a literary gathering, Tom meets Margit ..., an enigmatic translator whose magnetic presence and worldly manner intrigue the down-and-out author. She seduces him, haughtily dictating the time and place of their rendezvous in the Fifth Arrondissement. Their passionate affair coincides with a string of inexplicable events, and slowly Tom's anxieties and inner torments begin to derange his sense of what's real"--Container.