Synopses & Reviews
Now a major motion picture starring Simon Pegg, Rosamund Pike, Toni Collette, and Christopher Plummer
The international bestseller with more than two million copies sold
Once upon a time there was a young psychiatrist called Hector who was not very satisfied with himself. . . . And so he decided to take a trip around the world, and everywhere he went he would try to understand what made people happy or unhappy.”
Hector travels from Paris to China to Africa to the United States, and along the way he keeps a list of observations about the people he meets. Combining the winsome appeal of The Little Prince with the inspiring philosophy of The Alchemist, Hectors journey around the world and into the human soul is entertaining, empowering, and smile-inducingas winning in its optimism as it is wise in its simplicity.
Review
“Fans of
Chocolat and
The Elegance of the Hedgehog will adore
My Wish List, an emotionally wrenching yet ultimately uplifting story of ambition, risk, and acceptance. . . . Jocelyne is an immensely likable narrator, and Delacourts fluid, elegant prose brings layers of depth to a relatively simple story.” —
Booklist, starred review
“Revelatory . . . with an unexpected twist that speaks volumes about the nature of truth, love and happiness.” —Shelf Awareness, starred review
“This dastardly little novel focuses on love, desire and what we stand to lose when we win. . . . [A book] the late novelist Josephine Hart might have written.” —Kirkus Reviews
“What is happiness, what can money buy, what happens to love? . . . [My Wish List] will attract . . . those who enjoyed Muriel Barberys The Elegance of the Hedgehog. . . . A sparse, understated, philosophical [novel with] appeal to male as well as female readers, and for literary fiction fans and book clubs.” —Library Journal
“[A] fable about how money changes everything, and nothing . . . The aching need for comfort, safety and love that it describes is universal.” —Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
A charming fable about modern life that has touched the hearts of more than two million readers worldwide. Following on the success of The Elegance of the Hedgehog, and already a worldwide sensation, Hector and the Search for Happiness finally comes to America, where readers will delight in its uplifting humor. As Hector travels from Paris to China to the United States, he keeps a list of observations about the people he meets, hoping to find the secret to happiness. Combining the winsome appeal of The Little Prince with the inspiring philosophy of The Alchemist, Hector's journey around the world and into the human soul is entertaining, empowering, and smile inducing-as winning in its optimism as it is powerful in its insight and reassuring in its simplicity.
Synopsis
For fans of "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" and "The Alchemist" comes this international bestseller--a charming fable about modern life and the quest for the secret of happiness.
Synopsis
The #1 bestselling international phenomenon that asks, If you won the lottery, would you trade your life for the life of your dreams?
Jocelyne lives in a small town in France where she runs a fabric shop, has been married to the same man for twenty-one years, and has raised two children. She is beginning to wonder what happened to all those dreams she had when she was seventeen. Could her life have been different?
Then she wins the lotteryand suddenly finds the world at her fingertips. But she chooses not to tell anyone, not even her husbandnot just yet. Without cashing the check, she begins to make a list of all the things she could do with the money. But does Jocelyne really want her life to change?
About the Author
François Lelord has had a successful career as a psychiatrist in France, where he was born, and in the United States, where he did his postdoc (UCLA). He is the co-author of a number of bestselling self-help books and has consulted for companies interested in reducing stress for their employees. He was on a trip to Hong Kong, questioning his personal and professional life, when the Hector character popped into his mind, and he wrote Hector and the Search for Happiness not quite knowing what kind of book he was writing. The huge success of Hector, first in France, then in Germany and other countries, led him to spend more time writing and traveling, and at the height of the SARS epidemic he found himself in Vietnam, where he practiced psychiatry for a French NGO whose profits go toward heart surgery for poor Vietnamese children. While in Vietnam he also met his future wife, Phuong; today they live in Thailand.
François Lelord's series of novels about Hector's journeys includes Hector and the Search for Happiness, Hector and the Secrets of Love, and Hector and the Search for Lost Time.