The Kites [Paperback]

Romain Garys bittersweet final masterpiece is epic and empathetic (BBC) and one of his best (The New York Times) Epic and empathetic. Hero of the French Resistance, diplomat, and two-time recipient of the Prix Goncourt under two different pen names, Gary examines the fates of young love, naivet?, and idealism in his final novel, set in France during World War II and being published in English for the first time...A rich and layered love story that begins in innocence and moves through hardship toward a broad humanity. Unbelievably, two-time Prix Goncourt winner Garys luminous last work is only now appearing in English, but it was worth the wait... Gary uses limpid, accessible language (deftly translated) to deliver certain truths: memory can ground us or blind us; imagination, perhaps even a bit of craziness, is essential for survival; and we cannot easily be divided into heroes and villains. Smart and wonderfully life-affirming. A vivid text and a great saga about the innate dignity of love that avoids the twofold temptation of sentimentality and moral lessons. Gary handles the emotional tightrope of espionage and the brutal reality of battle with clarity and precision, all captured magnificently by Mouillots translation...This is a wonderful translation of a French classic. Blissful: in Garys hands, fiction itself is a form of resistance. Just before he killed himself, Gary published his last novel  and one of his best  The Kites, which has never before appeared in English but has now been given a stylish translation by Miranda Richmond Mouillot. Among Garys most accomplished works. Gary is in favor of significant moral action and against sanctimonious moral fervor. A fabulist in many small ways, he was in possession of one big compound truth: to believe that the human and the humane are naturally the same is one of the worst lies we tell ourselves; to think that they might yet become so is one of the better stories we share. [A] hugely enjoyl³-