Gilles Legardinier guides you through The Paris Labyrinth

Bestselling author Gilles Legardinier guides you through The Paris Labyrinth

Wednesday, June 9 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm EDT

In English

Join the Federation of Alliances Françaises USA to hear about the best-selling from Best-selling novelist Gilles Legardinier. He will discuss The Paris Labyrinth, which Publisher’s Weekly describes as a “pulse-pounding thriller set in 1889 Paris” and an “atmospheric page-turner, a nice blend of Alexandre Dumas père and Dan Brown.”  

The Paris conjured by Legardinier is on the cusp of great change and upheaval: the 1889 World’s Fair is about to open with, as its theme, the centenary of the French Revolution, the unveiling of the controversial Eiffel Tower, and technological achievements that promise a new age. And yet, dissatisfaction is brewing outside the fairgrounds. Anarchist attacks rock the streets, the foundations of power are showing their cracks, and even religious traditions are being challenged with the rise of different spiritualist beliefs and practices. At the center of the fast-paced novel is a group of artisans in Paris bound together by the covert work they do—creating secret compartments for valuables or getaway passages for the wealthy. The team suddenly comes under attack as their latest assignment takes them into the heart of the city’s underground and into its hidden past—pitting them against those who would destroy them for treading so far. Against a city both celebrating change and rocked by it, Legardinier creates a novel that explores history, belief, and what we really know and value in our lives.

French author Gilles Legardinier makes his English-language debut with The Paris Labyrinth, published by Flammarion, the first novel of this popular French author to be translated into English. Legardinier’s own story is as colorful as one of his characters: he was abandoned on the steps of a church in Paris as an infant and spent his formative early career years working in the film industry, specializing in pyrotechnics. He has worked both as a screenwriter and a novelist and his fiction has sold over six million copies and has been translated into 22 languages.

Legardinier will be interviewed by Kate Mascaro, his publisher at Flammarion, and your questions will be invited as well. The Paris Labyrinth is available in hardback at your local independent bookstores and online booksellers.

Non-members or persons who have no AF chapter nearby can purchase tickets ($10).