In Harris’ novel, a troubled Australian couple hoping to save their marriage find themselves at the center of a tragedy.

Perth resident Marian Featherstone knows that her relationship with her husband is in trouble when she calls Jason during his business trip to Sydney and hears the laughter of a “Jezebel” on the line, which she sees as clear evidence of adultery. The call occurs a few weeks before Marian is due to debut a series of collaborative artworks at a Paris art gallery—a momentous occasion in her long career. Sensing an opportunity for reconciliation, Jason accompanies her, and the couple seek to recommit to their love by snapping a small padlock onto the Pont des Arts bridge over the Seine—part of a longtime tradition in Paris. Jason finds a panel on which to attach their lock, and just after they do so, the damaged panel rips free and falls, apparently directly into the river. The following day, though, they learn that a boat was passing beneath the bridge at the time, and that the falling piece killed a child tourist from Venezuela—a lottery winner from an impoverished background on the trip of a lifetime. Wracked with guilt, Marian wants to report their involvement, but Jason downplays their culpability and insists that they must stay quiet. As the news spreads, it stokes a latent fire of French xenophobia, calling into question how Marian views not only her art, but her own place in global systems of appropriation and suppression. Some of the moral subtext in Harris’ novel can feel a bit heavy-handed. Fortunately, the author does well to balance these blunter moments with richly rendered set pieces from the Parisian streets—which often have no small amount of subtext themselves: “The persistent sweet, metallic under-smell of blood permeated the famous street despite coffee sipped from hundreds of cups, and thousands of wintertime flowers from Africa.” Harris’ eye for meaningful detail more than makes up for any lack of subtlety elsewhere.

A lovingly detailed novel of guilt and rumination in the City of Light.