The President's Hat by Antoine Laurain - Book Review



The President's Hat by
Reviewed by on

Sometimes life carries you in different directions and you don’t even realise you’ve gone down a fork in the road; the great GPS of destiny has not followed the planned route and there has been no sign to indicate you’ve passed the point of no return. Life’s Bermuda Triangle is both myth and reality.
Daniel Mercier can hardly believe his eyes when President François Mitterrand sits down to eat at the table next to him as he is dining alone in a Parisian Brasserie. In his mind, he plays over the conversation he will have with family and friends at his luck, and is astounded when the President leaves his hat behind. Rather than offer it back, Daniel takes the hat as his own, and finds himself blessed with mysterious good fortune... only for him too lose the hat himself!

I adored this short, uplifting novel, perhaps even more than my preceding read by Laurent, The Red Notebook. It is whimsical, comical and endearing: a journey through France in the 1980's with a wondrous sense of time and place and a perfect set of characters.

This is a perfect book to cheer oneself up on a dreary day, a light and easy read which could be devoured in a single afternoon.

Rating 5 out of 5 stars.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Complete List of Penguin Clothbound Classics (Updated for 2017)

Image
Since 2008, Penguin have published classic literature in a beautifully packaged format: the Clothbound Classics serie s. Each edition is bound in cloth, with covers individually designed by the talented Coralie Bickford-Smith . Several new titles have been published since I first created a complete list of this collection, including all three volumes of Proust's Rememberance of Things Past  and Jule's Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea . So I decided to update the list to include these new titles, along with a free printable download with full details of each title to assist in completing your own collection. In order of publication, here is the complete list of Penguin Clothbound Classics to date (August 2017): Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Read more

The Books which Inspired Studio Ghibli Films

Image
It may surprise you to know that many of Studio Ghibli's catalogue of films originate from literary sources. Howl's Moving Castle and Arietty are among the adaptations most people are aware of, yet we've discovered that 13 of the studio's 22 feature films find their origins in books. Here is a list of those films which have been adapted from the printed page for anime by the Japanese giant of animation. Grave of the Fireflies This semi-autobiographical short story was written by the by Japanese author Akiyuki Nosaka in 1967 (later published as a novel including other short stories) and was adapted for the big screen by Studio Ghibli in 1988. This is a heartbreaking story, both on the screen and the page, as it is based on the author's experiences before, during, and after the firebombing of Kobe in 1945. Kiki's Delivery Service Kiki's Delivery Service is based on the popular Japanese children's novel, Witches Express Home Delivery (魔女の宅急便 or Majo no Takk
Read more

The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale - Book Review

Image
The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale Reviewed by Amanda Kennedy on February 28th, 2018 The Toymakers is a rare and magical piece of literature, one which I feel blessed for having discovered and read. Though I had been approved to review the title on Netgalley, I decided I ought to purchase the beautiful hardcover edition as no doubt this will be a novel read several times, particularly in the run up to Christmas, during which time much of the story is set. The Emporium opens with the first frost of winter. It is the same every year. Across the city, when children wake to see ferns of white stretched across their windows, or walk to school to hear ice crackling underfoot, the whispers begin: the Emporium is open! The novel begins with Kathy's story: she is a 16 year old girl, who - having fallen pregnant - is faced with the decision to give up her child or run away to start a new life in London. She discovers a newspaper ad asking "Are you lost? Are you afraid...?" It p
Read more