Perestroika is a thoroughbred racehorse who wanders from her stall one day and winds up in a park in Paris. There she meets a streetwise dog named Frida, a pair of talkative mallards, and a curmudgeonly raven. Together this motley menagerie navigates the City of Light with the help of some kind humans, in particular a young boy named Étienne who will come to rely on the animals as much as they need him. Though the premise sounds potentially cloying, in the masterful hands of Jane Smiley, this fairy-tale-like novel is a clever, heartwarming charmer, the perfect uplifting literary escape.