The newest addition to literary travel guidebooks from Whereabouts Press is a banquet of stories that serve up the spirit of contemporary France, and reveal more about the culture than any travel guide could.

France: A Traveler's Literary Companion serves 21 sumptuous stories that explore the various regions of France, beginning in Paris, taking us past the tourist spots of the Eiffel Tower and the Champs Élysées, and into the soul of the city. The tour then takes us to the suburbs of Paris, then south, east, and west, completing the feast with a Tour de France: a lottery player's dream of owning houses scattered across the French landscape.

This literary guide draws on stories that capture a sense of place, as well as the diversity of modern France. The contributors include well-known authors including Colette, who writes about the grape harvest during the occupation, and the legendary detective novelist, Georges Simenon, who spins a mystery that take place on the barges on the Seine. Other writers include the likes of Egyptian immigrant Andrée Chedid, who explores the newcomer's experience in a heartbreaking story about the connection between a war-ravaged child and a world-weary Frenchman. Several of the stories touch upon the vestiges of the war, including the fate of unsung heroes. And what would a book by French authors be without a few good dog stories, also tucked into this edition?

The collection contains stories that are funny, sad, and mysterious, all transporting us into the inner landscape of the concerns, obsessions and intrigues of the people who inhabit these regions. The majority of the stories have never before been translated into English.