French novelist Antoine Laurain (Smoking Kills; The President's Hat) blends a bit of sci-fi with his signature wit in his sixth novel, Vintage 1954. On a September night in Paris, Hubert Larnaudie invites three acquaintances over to share a rare bottle of 1954 Beaujolais. Antiques restorer Magalie, mixologist Julien (who's secretly in love with Magalie) and Bob, a just-arrived Airbnb guest from Milwaukee, make an unlikely cocktail party in Hubert's staid if comfortable living room. But things get even stranger when all four of them wake up the next morning in 1954--with no idea how to get back to the present day.
The novel opens with a prologue about the disappearance of one Pierre Chauveau, back in 1954, after drinking a bottle of then-new wine. Laurain introduces his four present-day main characters and relates the history of the apartment building where they all live. When they end up in 1954, disoriented, Julien lands a job mixing cocktails at Harry's Bar, while Magalie and Hubert each follow clues in search of their own pasts. Charmed though they are by the Paris of postcard and legend, the four must figure out how to get themselves back to 2017. The way home will involve a vineyard outside the city and connect all of them to each other, plus the mysterious Pierre Chauveau.
Slyly whimsical, with equal parts flying saucers, Parisian charm and dry French wit, Vintage 1954 is a light and entertaining time-travel treat. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams