Book review: Delving into the glory and shame that is ‘the impossible city’ of Paris

In 'Impossible City' Simon Kuper does a great job in conveying why Paris is a city that is impossible to embrace and impossible to resist

Kuper peers deep into life of the central arrondissements, an area packed so tight that it is 'afflicted by permanent cabin fever': Parisians spend their lives 'trying to have private conversations in cafés while sitting six inches from the next table' or 'trying to keep their toilet visits and orgasms silent'.

• Impossible City: Paris in the Twenty-First Century 
• Simon Kuper
• Profile Books, £18.99