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“A feel-good
gem…François Lelord has created a 21st century
hero” —Good Housekeeping (UK)
“Even the most aloof, the most
detached reader will be won over by this book.” —Cosmopolitan (UK)
Author François Lelord will present his international bestseller “Hector
and the Search for Happiness”, recently translated
into English by Penguin Editions. The fable is an optimistic
look at life that relates the story of a young psychiatrist
who travels around the world and keeps a list of observations
about the people he meets and the meaning of happiness.
A profound bestseller both in France and in Germany, Hector
and the Search for Happiness has charmed more than
two million readers worldwide and has been translated for
distribution in more than twenty nations. With the promised
publication of three subsequent books and a potential film
project in the works, this fun and fresh fable about finding
happiness portends even greater prospects on American shores
as of September 2010. FIAF invites you to acquaint yourself
with this series on the cusp of U.S. success.
Meet the Author
Renowned as both psychiatrist and author, François Lelord earned
his doctoral degree in France followed by post-doctoral research
at UCLA. His two-year practice as an attending physician
in Paris and 7 years of private practice par la suite preceded
some peripatetic wanderings of his own, enriching both his
scientific studies and his literary productivity. Travel
in Hong Kong inspired this, his first novel, and sparked
an interest in international exploration that led to psychiatric
consulting for a French NGO in Vietnam. Such professional
pursuits supplemented his prolific literary career, which
includes the publication of several collaborative psychological
monographs and the Hector’s Journeys novel series.
He lives with his wife in Thailand, and this is his debut
novel.
About the Book
In Hector and the Search for Happiness, François
Lelord invites readers to participate in his unpretentious
and yet pseudo-Proustian recherche, populated by lively
anecdotes and punctuated with petites lessons about
the quest for contentment in our contemporary world. Hector,
an accomplished psychologist and Lelord’s protagonist,
finds himself frustrated by an inability to dispel dissatisfaction
in the lives of his patients. While quite competent at curing
psychological conditions, he feels impotent in the face of
the more abstract depressions afflicting many of those he
attempts to help. He thus embarks on a nontraditional expedition
to find the root of happiness. This journey chronicles his
encounters with a cast of intriguing individuals across four
continents while reconciling his reflections with the realities
of our contemporary climate. Hector’s navigation
of international destinations and musings about the human
psyche are thought-provoking, sincere, and peppered with
wit that reads as both wry and intelligent without being
cynical or obscure. In the tradition of the French contes
philosophiques or récits de voyage and
more recently Coehlo’s The Alchemist or Gilberts’s Eat,
Pray, Love, Lelord’s novel broaches the big questions
on a quest to comprehend self-satisfaction, and to itemize
our own eightfold path. Here, one finds a more adult Harry
Potter, a more self-aware Candide, a more modest Odysseus
all in the form of an earnest and no-less endearing philosophe-globetrotteur,
wandering his way through the world in search of purpose
and personal understanding. As readers, we join Hector on
his journey: on the path from progressive roman, to
psychological réflexion, and finally, to personal révélation.
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In English
Free!
Venue
FIAF Haskell
Library
22 East 60th Street
New York, NY 10022
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