IT IS Paris in the 1950s and semi-destitute university student Daniel Brodin, a self-styled poet, is being chased down the street by the owner of the legendary Minotaure bookshop.

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The gathering is stunned and the deception makes him a celebrity.

But one day his book-thieving luck fails and after he’s let go by the bookshop owner, he meets an anarchist couple on the banks of Seine who invite him to share a bottle of wine. This act of solidarity triggers a kaleidoscopic chain of events around the streets, bistros and cafes of bohemian Paris.

Communists march against Nato commander Matthew Ridgway — who in Korea gives orders “of the kind for which the German generals are sitting in prison” — existentialists of the Jean-Paul Sartre variety confront everybody, writer Jean Genet gets knocked down in a bar brawl, publisher Gaston Gallimard pontificates and unsavoury personages from the Parisian underworld rub shoulders with the various intellectual cliques.

[[{"fid":"12838","view_mode":"inlineright","fields":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"2":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-inlineright","data-delta":"2"}}]]Hectolitres of wine are imbibed in this merry-go-round by all concerned.

Writer Alessandro Tota narrates the story in six edge-of-the-seat chapters in what’s a true Situationist crawl through a Paris brimming with intellectual ferment, political activism and the personal dilemmas of Brodin. Now “Klepto” to his mates, he ends up participating in a daring burglary that ends in an accidental killing.

Laced with perceptive and warm humour, Diary of a Book Thief is thrillingly drawn by Pierre Van Hove, with the occasional subtle reference to Van Gogh, Utrillo, Degas and Lautrec.

A singular success.

Memoirs of a Book Thief is published by SelfMade Hero, price £14.99.