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From Beirut in 1948, to Saigon and Paris, this is the story of the Pelletier family, rich with corruption, death, blackmail – and murder. The first volume of THE GLORIOUS YEARS series, translated by Frank Wynne
‘Literature with conviction; a furious talent’ L’Obs
Beirut, 1948. The Pelletier family returns…
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.
François, 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.
‘You have the ingredients Balzac would have cooked with. And it is exactly those great 19th century novels that Lemaitre will remind you of’ Sunday Times
‘Pierre Lemaitre skilfully captivates and stuns the reader’ Le Figaro
(P)2023 Headline Publishing Group Ltd
‘Literature with conviction; a furious talent’ L’Obs
Beirut, 1948. The Pelletier family returns…
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.
François, 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.
‘You have the ingredients Balzac would have cooked with. And it is exactly those great 19th century novels that Lemaitre will remind you of’ Sunday Times
‘Pierre Lemaitre skilfully captivates and stuns the reader’ Le Figaro
(P)2023 Headline Publishing Group Ltd
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Reviews
Pierre Lemaitre skilfully captivates and stuns the reader
Storytelling with never a dull moment
The Wide World is one of his best . . . Compellingly plotted, stuffed with great characters, thought-provokingly situated in history
Lemaitre casts his net wide, skilfully contrasting the vibrancy, exoticism and dangerous excitement of Saigon and Beirut in the years after the second world war with the drab, careworn city that Paris has become