The Wide World: An epic novel of family fortune, twisted secrets and love - the first volume in THE GLORIOUS YEARS series

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

Format: Hardback
Length: 512 pages
Publication date: 06 July 2023
Publisher: Headline Publishing Group

The Wide World is one of his best works. It is compellingly plotted, filled with great characters, and thought-provokingly situated in history. Honestly, what more could you want from a novel?

The Times praised the novel for its literature with conviction and a furious talent. L Obs described it as the first volume of the GLORIOUS YEARS series, translated by Frank Wynne. Beirut, 1948. The Pelletier family returns to their ancestral home in Paris for the annual pilgrimage, but this time, it takes on the air of a funeral cortège.

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 is eager to flee the familial bonds for other reasons. Jean agrees to an escape to France.

Etienne Pelletier, the 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 realizes a serial killer is on the loose, one who may be closer than anyone realizes.

You have the ingredients Balzac would have cooked with. And it is exactly those.

Dimension: 240 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781472292100