Why a Booktrail?
1948 onwards: The Pelletier family returns…
The Wide World
What you need to know before your trail
The Pelletiers are a hugely prominent French family living in Beirut. Louis Pelletier has spent years building his soap business, dominating the manufacturing market. Now, he wants to pass on the leadership, but choosing which son to takeover from him is proving challenging.
Jean, the eldest, has no such acumen for managing the enterprise and seems a hopeless and weak option. His wife, though, has superior ambitions, and eager to flee the familial bonds for other reasons, Jean agrees to an escape to France.
Etienne Pelletier, younger and a gentle soul, is trained in accounts, and leaves home for Saigon to find love. There, he uncovers a well-established scheme to channel smuggled goods and cash to the Viet Minh. It is dangerous evidence that presents a real threat not only to officials in high places, but to his own life.
François, the middle Pelletier brother, persuades his father to let him travel to Paris, where he becomes a journalist. His career flies when he reports on the brutal murder of an actress, and realises a serial killer is on the loose, one who may be closer than anyone realises.
Locations
Reset- Lebanon - Beirut
- A: French Street
- B: Beirut harbour
- France - Paris
- C: Le Regent (cinema)
- D: Hotel Le Regent
- Vietnam/Saigon
- E: Khách Sạn Metropole hotel
- F: Crystal Palace Hotel
Travel Guide
A tale of three cities
From Beirut to Paris and then Saigon during wartime, we have quite the journey in this novel following the fortunes of a French family.
The setting of Beirut is where it all starts and there are many insights into how a French family living here in 1948 might face certain situations. The fear and uncertainty of the time are evoked well and there’s much to learn and discover.
Saigon is the second very well evoked setting – two key places of note are the two hotels – The Metropole for cocktails and the Crystal Palace which ressembles wedding cake.You may need to eat and drink when reading this book. Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam as it is now) played a key role in world events when the book is set and this is nicely explored.
We do head back to Paris but this city is somewhat vague in contrast to the other two.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Wide World
Destination/location: Beirut, Paris, Saigon Author/guide: Pierre Lemaitre Departure Time: 1948 onwards
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