How an Art Deco sculptor inspired a Kiwi’s debut novel

A Kiwi writer’s obsession with all things Art Deco led her to pen a book set in the turbulent inter-war period in France. Jeena Murphy’s novel Rue de Paradis is based on a young woman’s experience of fleeing her home village for the bright lights of Paris in 1933, where she finds work as a model for one of the best-known sculptors of the era. His name was Demétre Chiparus, a Romanian emigre, whose ivory and bronze figurines often drew inspiration from the ballet world. But the foundries that produced his work largely belonged to Jews, and were forced to shut in World War II. Jeena’s novel imagines the difficulties faced by one of those foundries as the pre-war political tensions started to boil.