sentences:  Both editions were nominated in Canada for a Governor General's Award in 1998 and 1999 respectively.The English edition was also a nominee for the Giller Prize in 1999.Set in 1950s Paris against the backdrop of the French-Algerian conflict, the book tells the story of an affair between its two main protagonists; Saffie, the young German wife of renowned French musician Raphael Lepage; and Andras, a Hungarian-Jewish instrument repairer living in the city's Mairie immigrant district.