The man with no borders : a novel

Format:

Book

Title:

The man with no borders : a novel

Author:

Morais, Richard C., 1960- author

ISBN:

9781542093828

Edition:

First edition.

Publication:

New York : Little A, [2019]

Physical Description:

304 pages ; 22 cm

Summary:

"It is a time of reckoning for José María Álvarez, an aristocratic Spanish banker living in a Swiss village with his American wife. Nearing the end of a long and tumultuous life, he's overcome by hallucinatory memories of the past. Among his most cherished memories are those of his boyhood in 1950s Franco-era Spain and the bucolic afternoons he spent salmon fishing on the Sella River with his father, uncle, and much-loved younger brother. But these fond reveries are soon eclipsed by something greater. José's regrets and dark family secrets are flooding back, as is the devastating tragedy that drove José into exile and makes him bear the burden of a soul-deep guilt. Now, as his three estranged sons return to their father's side, José hopes to outpace death long enough to finally put his house in order and exorcise its demons. Only in his quest for redemption can José begin to understand the meaning of his life - and what his legacy has meant to others."--Publisher description.

Subject(s):

Bankers -- Fiction.

Fathers and sons -- Fiction.

Families -- Fiction.

Family secrets -- Fiction.

Reconciliation -- Fiction.

Death -- Fiction.

Spaniards -- Switzerland -- Fiction.

Switzerland -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Switzerland -- Fiction.

Switzerland.

Genre:

Domestic fiction.

Fiction.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Silver Falls Library	FIC MORAIS	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

A father comes to terms with his mortality and secrets in a heartrending novel of family and forgiveness from the New York Times bestselling author of The Hundred-Foot Journey .

It is a time of reckoning for José María Álvarez, an aristocratic Spanish banker living in a Swiss village with his American wife. Nearing the end of a long and tumultuous life, he's overcome by hallucinatory memories of the past. Among his most cherished memories are those of his boyhood in 1950s Franco-era Spain and the bucolic afternoons he spent salmon fishing on the Sella River with his father, uncle, and much-loved younger brother. But these fond reveries are soon eclipsed by something greater. José's regrets and dark family secrets are flooding back, as is the devastating tragedy that drove José into exile and makes him bear the burden of a soul-deep guilt.

Now, as his three estranged sons return to their father's side, José hopes to outpace death long enough to finally put his house in order and exorcise its demons. Only in his quest for redemption can José begin to understand the meaning of his life--and what his legacy has meant to others.

Author Notes

Richard C. Morais is the editor of Penta, a Barron's website and quarterly magazine. An American raised in Switzerland, Morais has lived most of his life overseas, returning to the United States in 2003. He is the author of The Hundred-Foot Journey, which is a New York Times Bestseller. He also wrote Buddhaland Brooklyn.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (2)

Kirkus Review

A powerful man confronts his mortality.Facing an unexpected diagnosis of terminal brain cancer, Spanish-born, Swiss-based private banker Jos Mara lvarez must race against his dwindling time to settle the "unfinished business" of his thorny financial and personal lives. Born into the fifth generation of a family of bankers in Franco-era Spain, lvarez has thrived for more than 75 years in a bubble of privilege whose native currencies are wealth and power, expertly honing his skills at deploying both, not least to satisfy his abundant material and emotional appetites. As he battles intense physical pain and lurches between moments of lucidity and vivid hallucinations that take him back to his teenage yearsa time when family secrets and family tragedy merged to cast a shadow over the rest of his lifelvarez also must face the equally shocking contemporary truths he's concealed from his American wife, Lisa, who's enjoyed the fruits of his business acumen without fully embracing the trappings of their rarified existence, and their three adult sons, returning from the United States to their parents' elegant chalet to be present for their father's final days. lvarez's passion for fly-fishing, borne at his domineering father's side on the salmon-rich rivers of his native northern Spain, provides one of the novel's dominant motifs as well as the occasion for some lush descriptive prose. Morais (Buddhaland Brooklyn, 2012, etc.) also skillfully draws on his background as a veteran Forbes and Barron's financial journalist, most notably in the tension-filled account of a high-stakes negotiation that threatens the lvarez family fortune after a much younger Jos must assume control upon his father's premature death. Whether he's untangling the strands of Jos's dark inner world or offering a glimpse of a milieu where money serves as both lubricant and salve, Morais effectively reveals how heartbreakingly inadequate even vast resources can be in providing a bulwark against the assault of life's most formidable challenges.A meticulous unearthing of the painful contradictions in a privileged life. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

José Maria Alvarez knows his cancer is here to stay. He's reached the stage where oncologists talk about the best ways to make him comfortable, as if comfort is possible at this point. An upper-class banker, José was raised in Spain and lives in Switzerland, and has a long, tumultuous life to look back on. When his three estranged sons arrive to pay their respects, José can't help but slip into flashbacks of his past. Where he went wrong, what he did right, all of his memories resurface for a final review. It's his last chance to consider his legacy, and he's not entirely proud of the life he's leaving behind. Morais (The Hundred-Foot Journey, 2010) assembles a melancholy-but-not-maudlin portrait of a man facing his final days. Immersing readers in José's memories, The Man with No Borders is a fluid, lyrical look at a dramatic and often traumatic life. Fans of Anthony Doerr and Paulette Jiles will enjoy this sweeping novel's sumptuous locales and heart-wrenching vignettes.--Stephanie Turza Copyright 2010 Booklist