Babayaga A Novel
Babayaga by Toby Barlow is a novel published by Macmillan on August 6, 2013, featuring 383 pages in English. Set in 1950s Paris, the story intertwines the lives of a young American ad executive, Will, who works for a CIA front, and Zoya, a beautiful woman with a mysterious past. As the Cold War intensifies, their paths cross amidst a backdrop of love, espionage, and the supernatural, including witches and a detective who finds himself transformed into a flea.
Readers will encounter a blend of fantasy and literary elements as the narrative unfolds through a series of chance encounters and darkly humorous situations. The characters navigate personal struggles, including Zoya’s haunting history and Will’s romantic misadventures, while Inspector Vidot grapples with his unexpected transformation. The novel also touches on themes of mortality and responsibility, all set against the vibrant and chaotic atmosphere of Paris during a tumultuous era.
Official synopsis Publisher
By the author of Sharp Teeth, a novel of love, spies, and witches in 1950s Paris—and a cop turned into a flea
Will is a young American ad executive in Paris. Except his agency is a front for the CIA. It’s 1959 and the cold war is going strong. But Will doesn’t think he’s a warrior—he’s just a good-hearted Detroit ad guy who can’t seem to figure out Parisian girls.
Zoya is a beautiful young woman wandering les boulevards, sad-eyed, coming off a bad breakup. In fact, she impaled her ex on a spike. Zoya, it turns out, has been a beautiful young woman for hundreds of years; she and her far more traditionally witchy-looking companion, Elga, have been thriving unnoticed in the bloody froth of Europe’s wars.
Inspector Vidot is a hardworking Paris police detective who cherishes quiet nights at home. But when he follows a lead from a grisly murder to the abode of an ugly old woman, he finds himself turned into a flea.
Oliver is a patrician, fun-loving American who has come to France to start a literary journal with the help of friends in D.C. who ask a few favors in return. He’s in well over his head, but it’s nothing that a cocktail can’t fix. Right?
Add a few chance encounters, a chorus of some more angry witches, a strung-out jazzman or two, a weaponized LSD program, and a cache of rifles buried in the Bois de Bologne—and that’s a novel! But while Toby Barlow’s Babayaga may start as just a joyful romp though the City of Light, it quickly grows into a daring, moving exploration of love, mortality, and responsibility.
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