Why a Booktrail?
If everything in your life was based on a lie, would you risk it all to tell the truth?
The Betrayals
What you need to know before your trail
At Montverre, an exclusive academy tucked away in the mountains, the best and brightest are trained for excellence in the grand jeu: an arcane and mysterious contest. Léo Martin was once a student there, but lost his passion for the grand jeu following a violent tragedy. Now he returns in disgrace, exiled to his old place of learning with his political career in tatters.
Montverre has changed since he studied there, even allowing a woman, Claire Dryden, to serve in the grand jeu’s highest office of Magister Ludi. When Léo first sees Claire he senses an odd connection with her, though he’s sure they have never met before.
Both Léo and Claire have built their lives on lies. And as the legendary Midsummer Game, the climax of the year, draws closer, secrets are whispering in the walls…
Travel Guide
Set in a fictional European country.
Montverre is an old university where scholars play the Grand Jeu. The Grand Jeu is a game which involves mathematics, philosophy, religion, art and music.
The author explains that the book is inspired by Hermann Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game (also known as Magister Ludi). What she calls the grand jeu has a lot in common with the Glass Bead Game as Heese conceived it: an elusive game that combines maths, music and ideas in an atmosphere of meditation, and is overseen by the Magister Ludi (Hesse’s pun on the Latin for ‘schoolmaster’). The Betrayals is set in a very different world – and is a very different kind of book – but nevertheless it owes a huge debt to Hesse’s masterpiece.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Betrayals
Destination/location: ‘Montverre’ Author/guide: Bridget Collins Departure Time: Who knows?
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