Tuesday, August 3, 2010

The Rocheforts: A Novel, by Christian Laborie

The Rocheforts: A Novel, by Christian Laborie

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The Rocheforts: A Novel, by Christian Laborie

The Rocheforts: A Novel, by Christian Laborie



The Rocheforts: A Novel, by Christian Laborie

Read Online and Download The Rocheforts: A Novel, by Christian Laborie

Two very different families are bonded by scandal in this sweeping story of love, greed, and betrayal Anselme Rochefort has built an empire manufacturing serge de Nîmes, or denim. His biggest client? Levi Strauss. As the craze for blue jeans begins to sweep the globe, Rochefort Industries seems poised for untold success. But Anselme can be as cruel and ruthless with his family as he is in business. The Rocheforts’ neighbor Donatien Rouvière has one of the region’s most prosperous farms and is desperate for a son to carry on his legacy. After the births of three daughters, the Rouvières adopt an orphan from the Sisters of Charity convent and raise him as their own. When Anselme suggests uniting the two families by arranging for their children to marry, it seems like the perfect match. But as the lives of the two clans grow increasingly intertwined, dark secrets come to light, including the mysterious circumstances of the death of Anselme’s eldest daughter. With The Rocheforts, Christian Laborie weaves a captivating tale of deceit, intrigue, and the dynamic tension between industrialization and a way of life rooted in the land.

The Rocheforts: A Novel, by Christian Laborie

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #1880698 in Books
  • Brand: Laborie, Christian
  • Published on: 2015-05-05
  • Released on: 2015-05-05
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Dimensions: 8.00" h x 1.08" w x 5.25" l, .0 pounds
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 484 pages
The Rocheforts: A Novel, by Christian Laborie

Review “Laborie’s debut impresses with a sweeping saga full of historical detail and familial melodrama.” —Kirkus Reviews

About the Author Christian Laborie was born in the North of France but has lived in the southern region of Cévennes for more than twenty years. The Rocheforts is his first novel to be published in English. 


The Rocheforts: A Novel, by Christian Laborie

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Most helpful customer reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful. A good, old-fashioned family saga... By Jill Meyer Remember the "family saga"? Those long, involved novels which follow a family from generation to generation? The ones where the sins of the father were visited on the sons, and their sons, etc? The late author Taylor Caldwell used to churn them out and all were entertaining in their overwrought way. (Side bar: I wish Caldwell's publishers would publish her "Dynasty of Death" trilogy in ebook...).Anyway, French author Christian Laborie's novel, "The Rocheforts", is being published in English. It was a best-seller in France in 2010. The book, a longish saga of the Rochefort family of the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France, begins when a man is spotted entering a darkened house in 1898 and seen leaving with a bundle of...something. The reader doesn't know what the bundle is but the author gives clues. And we do find out later on. The story then moves on in time to the merging of two family fortunes - fortunes of unequal size, however - with the marriage of Louise Rouviere and Jean-Christophe Rochefort. Louise is from a prosperous farm family, which, unfortunately for the father, Donatien, consists only of daughters. He and his wife decide to adopt a child from an orphanage in Nimes and groom him to take over the family farm. The rest of the book is the story of the Rochefort and the Rouviere families and how the two interact, interlove, and intermarry. The villain of the book - and there really only is one - is the patriarch of the Rocheforts, Anselme, who time and time again manages to alienate everyone around him. (I say only one, though there's another bad guy, but he's sort of an "Anseleme mini-me") From Anselme the lies and coverups do go generation to generation...The attentive reader of fiction almost always learns something from the pages of a well-written novel. In "The Rocheforts", we learn about denim. The material, denim. The name "denim" was taken from the area in France in which it was developed, "Nimes". ("de Nimes" or "denim"). The Rochefort money has come from both dowries and the production of fabric.Christian Laborie also does an excellent job at writing about France in the pre-WW1 years til the 1930's in his family saga. This is one of the first novels I've read that covers those years, in political, economic, and societal terms.The only problem with the book that some readers may find is the somewhat flatness of the writing. I'm trying to figure out if its because of the translation from French to English. I don't know who did the translation; no name is given. It could be that Christian Laborie did his own translation. Now, I liked it because I don't like florid writing. But others may not be able to get "involved" with the family. This is one of those book I can heartily recommend to readers looking for a robust family saga. But do read all the reviews that will be written about this book - I think mine is the first but many others will follow - and see if any mention the writing style.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful. A Good Story that Epitomizes Life Among the Rich & Powerful of Europe Between the Two Wars By Bill Anderson Length: 475 pages.This is a good adventure with intrigue. Set in France at a time when Europe was at the peak of power, culture and refinement. If this story was written during the 1970s in the United States, it would be about Jock Ewing. If it were written about Silicon Valley, it would be about Steve Jobs trying to get an adopted son married to the granddaughter of Walt Disney.Yet, in many ways, it is a greater escape by being seton France a hundred years ago, so the reader can more easily suspend disbelief.I got this through the Amazon Vine program, thinking it might be as intriguing and tragic similar to another novel based on characters not unlike Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch. (I apologize for not recollecting the name of the book, but I couldn't even google for it successfully.)The Rocheforts is a well-written book, but not quite a five star. It tugged me from time to time, but, alas, I found myself reading a few pages, then picking up something else. Then, I'd find myself coming right back to The Rocheforts. But, I just don't get invested into the characters.A 4-1/2 Star Novel.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. For every reader who misses the old family saga novels of the 80s...they're back! By M.Jacobsen You don't see too many grand family sagas anymore. Perhaps they've gone out of vogue, but I kind of miss them. The Rocheforts is one of those huge, sweeping sagas like the kind that used to be really popular back in the 80s. It follows two French families (the novel is translated from the French...it was a huge bestseller over in France a few years back. Maybe we have to move to France to get these kind of novels back?), the wealthy and privileged Rocheforts and the more down to earth farming family, the Rouvieres. Needless to say, the families become intertwined via marriage, children, relationships, scandal, hatreds, all that good stuff that makes a family saga novel so danged gossipy and good. It starts towards the end of the 1800s and finishes off a hundred or so years later so we've got some good generational stuff going on here too.If you miss the whole saga type books, order this. It's just good fun.

See all 32 customer reviews... The Rocheforts: A Novel, by Christian Laborie


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The Rocheforts: A Novel, by Christian Laborie

The Rocheforts: A Novel, by Christian Laborie

The Rocheforts: A Novel, by Christian Laborie
The Rocheforts: A Novel, by Christian Laborie

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