Please note: In order to keep Hive up to date and provide users with the best features, we are no longer able to fully support Internet Explorer. The site is still available to you, however some sections of the site may appear broken. We would encourage you to move to a more modern browser like Firefox, Edge or Chrome in order to experience the site fully.

Supporting your high street Find out how »
The Incorrigible Optimists Club, Paperback / softback Book

The Incorrigible Optimists Club Paperback / softback

Paperback / softback

Item not Available

Description

WINNER OF THE PRIX GONCOURT DES LYCEENS SHORTLISTED FOR THE OXFORD-WEIDENFELD TRANSLATION PRIZESHORTLISTED FOR THE PRESTIGIOUS PRIX GONCOURT SHORTLISTED FOR THE PRIX INTERALLIEParis, 1959.

As dusk settles over the immigrant quarter, 12-year-old Michel Marini - amateur photographer and compulsive reader - is drawn to the hum of the local bistro.

From his usual position at the football table, he has a vantage point on a grown-up world - of rock 'n' roll and of the Algerian War.

But as the sun sinks and the plastic players spin, Michel's concentration is not on the game, but on the huddle of men gathered in the shadows of a back room... Past the bar, behind a partly drawn curtain, a group of eastern European men gather, where under a cirrus of smoke and over the squares of chess boards, they tell of their lives before France - of lovers and wives, children and ambitions, all exiled behind the Iron Curtain.

Listening to this band of survivors and raconteurs, Michel is introduced to a world beyond the boundaries of his childhood experience, a world of men made formidable in the face of history, ideas and politics: the world of the Incorrigible Optimists Club.

Information

Save 22%

£16.99

£13.09

Item not Available
Item not Available
Sign in to add to wishlist
 
Free Home Delivery

on all orders

 
Pick up orders

from local bookshops

Information