Pure

By Andrew Miller

Subjects: Civil engineers, Cemeteries, Fiction, historical, Japanese Poets, Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945, Fiction, Social life and customs, Social conditions, Paris (france), fiction, Young men

Description: Deep in the heart of Paris, its oldest cemetery is, by 1785, overflowing, tainting the very breath of those who live nearby. Into their midst comes Jean-Baptiste Baratte, a young, provincial engineer charged by the king with demolishing it. At first Baratte sees this as a chance to clear the burden of history, a fitting task for a modern man of reason. But before long, he begins to suspect that the destruction of the cemetery might be a prelude to his own.