Review
If you like your thought-provoking books with a dose of energetic plot, you'll want to read
A Secret Kept. Set in France, both in Paris and Noirmoutier (see sidebar), the story starts in the middle of the action as we meet a man still in shock from a very recent car accident, which becomes the catalyst for him to reexamine his entire life.
As you would imagine from the title, de Rosnay's follow up to
Sarah's Key (2007) is about secrets - some significant, some not. Her message appears to be that it is not so much the nature of the secret that causes problems in a relationship but the fact that there are secrets. Once you discover one surprising secret about someone you love, suddenly you wonder what else you don't know about them. And secrets discovered in adulthood call into question everything you believed to be true. It seems trite, but this is really...
Beyond the Book
A Secret Kept is set primarily in Paris and Noirmoutier (pronounced "nwar mooteeay"), an island off the Atlantic coast of France in the Loire region. A popular tourist destination for both beach-lovers and history buffs, Ile de Noirmoutier (literally 'island of black monastery') has several claims to fame:
It is home to
La Bonnotte, the world's most expensive potato. The carefully controlled crop is harvested by hand in the first week of May and is sold to restaurants and foodies across Europe. If you look up
La Bonnotte online you'll find a multitude of websites ready to tell you that they sell for €500 or more a kilo. These reports should be taken with a strong pinch of salt. The reality is that occasional bags have sold for as much as...
