The Travels of Daniel Ascher
A Novel
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A sensation in France, this is a story about literary deceptions, family secrets, and a thrilling quest for the truth
Who is the real author of The Black Insignia? Is it H. R. Sanders, whose name is printed on the cover of every installment of the wildly successful young adult adventure series? Or is it Daniel Roche, the enigmatic world traveler who disappears for months at a time? When Daniel’s great-niece, Hélène, moves to Paris to study archeology, she does not expect to be searching for answers to these questions. As rumors circulate, however, that the twenty-fourth volume of The Black Insignia series will be the last, Hélène and her friend Guillaume, a devoted fan of her great-uncle’s books, set out to discover more about the man whose life eludes her. In so doing, she uncovers an explosive secret dating back to the darkest days of the Occupation.
In recounting the moment when one history began and another ended, The Travels of Daniel Ascher explores the true nature of fiction: is it a refuge, a lie, or a stand-in for mourning?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this slender, haunting French novel, Helene Chambon is a 20-year-old who arrives in Paris in 1999 to study at the Institute of Archeology. She is staying with her great-uncle, Daniel Roche, a world traveler and author of the popular Black Insignia young adult book series, published under the pen name H.R. Sanders. Helene begins dating a fellow student, Guillaume, who turns out to be a devotee of the series. Helene, who has never been a fan of the books or close to her distant great-uncle, becomes curious about his personal history, because of Guillaume. She knows that her great-uncle is Jewish, that he was adopted by her family during World War II, and that his real name is Daniel Ascher. As she works to excavate her great-uncle's past, Helene comes to understand that Daniel's life is a series of mysteries. And the closer she gets to unlocking them, the more mysterious he becomes. The author has written a novel that takes the reader back to the occupation of Paris and France's complicated history with its Jewish population. The narrative reads like a mash-up of Sarah's Key and The Book Thief, and it adroitly straddles the line between adult and YA literature. A piercing meditation on memory and history, perhaps the book's greatest gift is the way it makes the reader believe that the Black Insignia series is real.
