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Loading... The Wide World (2022)by Pierre Lemaitre
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This is the first book in a quartet that tells the story of the Pelletier family in 1948 who live in Beirut. The youngest son, Etienne, travels to Saigon following a love who is a legionnaire and stumbles on fradulent use of the exchange of money which means that France who is at war with the Viet Minh is financing their weapons. Etienne is eventually killed and what we see is that behind war, there is often a tussle over money and betrayal. Etienne's sister and two brothers end up in Paris, having managed to escape their parents and struggle to find their place. Francois becomes a journalist and Jean stays the hen-pecked husband that he is but eventually manages to make money. Family secrets are strong. Everybody has something to hide and some of the behaviours are quite disturbing for such a gentle, straightforward telling of the story with humour in places. Everyone is guilty of something and yet no one is punished apart from Etienne, and he was the one who was trying to expose a crime rather than hide it. I suppose they might all get their come uppance in books 2 - 4 but at the end of this one they are all free of any punishment although their mother and father's secrets have caught up with them. The characters are very well written, but on the whole not ones that you might like. We are drawn into their worlds and understand their fears and guilt as each plays their part in the story. The story gathered pace as you move through it until about 3/4 of the way and then it takes off with most of the revelations happening in the final quarter of the 503 pages. It is a story of greed, revenge, secrets and murder and there is a lot of murder. I look forward to the next volume in The Glorious Years quartet. no reviews | add a review
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Beirut, 1948. The Pelletiers are a prominent French family living in Beirut. The patriarch Louis, has built a successful business manufacturing and exporting artisanal soaps. He hoped to pass the business on to his eldest son, Jean, but Jean doesn't have the sharpness or aptitude for such an enterprise. After nearly running the company into the ground, Jean marries a money-grubbing young woman who quickly makes him miserable, and they emigrate to Paris. But there's another reason Jean must leave, he has committed a terrible crime. His brother Etienne, travels to Saigon, where he soon uncovers irregularities in the local currency office and begins investigating what he believes is a scheme to channel smuggled goods and cash to the Viet Minh. It is evidence that presents a real threat to his own life. Francois, the middle Pelletier brother, has gone to Paris ostensibly to study, but finds himself working as a journalist. His career flies when he reports on the brutal murder of an actress in a cinema ladies' room. It seems a serial killer is on the loose. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)843.92Literature French and related languages French fiction Modern Period 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Lemaitre nos cuenta tres historias de amor, dos procesiones, la historia de Buda y Confucio, las peripecias de un periodista ambicioso, una muerte trágica, la vida del gato Joseph, los maltratos de una esposa insoportable, la corrupción de los gobiernos, un descenso a los infiernos. ( )