It tells the story of a young boy in 1930s Paris who lives in the city train station and looks after the clocks.

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Of the many cases the child-protection people have been struggling with, this one constitutes their most flagrant failure, for they can't find a homeless shelter in all of Paris that will accept the boy together with his helpless mother.

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"I salute the Italian boy who came to Paris to earn his living and chose to become French, first in August 1914 when he lied about his age to sign up at 16 for the Foreign Legion to defend his adopted homeland, " the French president said in a statement.

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He made his way, at the age of nine, to France to join his two brothers, and worked in Paris as a chimney sweep and paper boy.

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Ken Kalfus' extraordinary first book, "Thirst, " starts out like this, with two stories ("Bouquet" and the title story) that sketch the confounding of a repressed Irish au pair in Paris as she encounters a seductive Algerian boy.

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As a boy, Mr Mabanckou was fascinated by the dandies who returned from Paris obsessed with brand names, but the novel lampoons the idea of tailoring as a political statement.

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The anonymous blond boy in the flag who had been kissed by the women of Paris and had taken wine to celebrate had almost - but not quite - made it.

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