Synopses & Reviews
André and Clara Malraux had the world at their feet. Wealthy and carefree, their life was a bohemian idyll spent frequenting the hottest clubs and restaurants, and traveling and mingling with the Paris literary set. But all this changed when the stock market crashed and their fortune disappeared overnight. Penniless but still craving adventure, André dreamt up a plan to travel to French Indochina where they would collect temple treasures and sell them for a huge profit in America. Against all the odds—jungle fevers, inexperience, and uncooperative locals—they succeeded. But their treasure hunt turned into a dangerous crusade when Clara and André set up an anti-government newspaper in Saigon, defiantly exposing colonial injustices, corruption, and the governments stifling of Asian culture.
Review
"Though the marriage didn't last, its story entertains, as do details of the Malrauxs' individual activities after the divorce." --Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Axel Madsen was a biographer and journalist. Born in Denmark and raised in Paris, he first began writing for the Paris edition of The New York Herald Tribune. He moved to Los Angeles in the 1960s, where he wrote biographies of Coco Chanel, Billy Wilder, John Jacob Astor, and Jacques Cousteau among others. He died in 2007.