Notre-Dame
By Ken Follet
Harper, 80pp, £9.99/$17
Before he has reached the 10th sentence of his new book, Notre-Dame, the bestselling novelist Ken Follett has claimed the cathedral on the Île-de-la-Cité as “one of the greatest achievements of European civilisation”. Watching it aflame on his television screen on that momentous night last year, and hearing President Macron say “Nous rebâtirons” (“We will rebuild”), brought Follett to the edge of tears. He compares seeing the spire fall to the moment in the life of every boy “when he realises that his father is not all-powerful and invulnerable”.
