«Le Grand Monde», a glorious saga

After a breathtaking saga set in the wake of the two world wars, Pierre Lemaitre takes us on a voyage to the Thirty Glorious. And if the era is different, the novelistic fervor remains the same. Heading for the Big World.

As I had loved his Children of disaster (including Au revoir là-haut was the first volume), I was more than eager to discover Pierre Lemaitre's new saga. Especially after having waited a year for its paperback release (even though I was tempted to give in on numerous occasions and buy it directly in large format, I stuck to the - almost - infallible strategy I've been using for several years to restrict and stagger my book cravings: wait for the novels to appear in paperback)!

Pierre Lemaitre returns with a saga devoted to the Trente Glorieuses, opening with Le Grand Monde. The story follows the destiny and turpitude of the Pelletier family, between Beirut, Paris and Saigon. At the head of a large and prosperous soap factory, Louis Pelletier sees his children leave Lebanon and the parental home, one after the other, to make their own lives, all abroad. Jean moves with his wife to Paris to work as a sales representative, Etienne flies to Saigon to follow in the footsteps of his missing lover, François heads for the capital to enter the Ecole Normale Supérieure... and Hélène follows in their footsteps a few months later. Their paths are singularly different, but all converge in one thing: their disappointments.

Soap operas, adventure novels

What a pleasure to rediscover Pierre Lemaitre's literary verve! The plot twists and turns, the adventures follow one another, the dialogue is funny and lively, the characters are as truculent as they are detestable, the streets are littered with petty schemes, the plush interiors with big scandals, there's no time to get bored or to stop the story! Every evening I looked forward to joining Visit Big World, It was a pleasure to read only a few pages at lunchtime, because each chapter is like a mini play that ends with a twist, leaving the suspense hanging in the air. I felt like I was back in serial novels of the^th century!

Boarding for Le Grand Monde, To read this book is to give in to the call of adventure, and to be carried along in a succession of incredible episodes, always with the same jubilation. Pierre Lemaitre proves once again that he's a formidable storyteller! The breath, the wit, the passion, the exaltation and the mischief make this book a great popular novel, the likes of which are few and far between.

Write to the author: quentin.perissinotto@leregardlibre.com

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Pierre Lemaitre
Le Grand Monde
Le Livre de Poche 
Pocket format 
2023 [2022] 
672 pages 

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