Large ImageFound and Lost You in Paris: Paris, May ’68 protests. An old couple from the U.S. venture into the Paris night. …and vanish.
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Description
John, an American architect, and his wife, Catalina, born on Majorca, Spain, and a doctor, land in Paris on Friday, May 10 1968 to attend the wedding of their granddaughter, Léna Higgins.
Unaware of recent violent confrontations between students and police, they venture out of their Quartier Latin hotel into the Paris night... And vanish.
This thriller, about an elderly couple who, when thrust into danger, respond, plan, and achieve, offers a unique perspective that sets it apart in the genre.
Multilayered, it's also conceived as Couple's Fiction, rather than men's or women's. As such, the psychological evolution of the main characters is key to the novel. Too, Found and Lost You is about finding and losing love - and loved ones. Of the elating and the bereaving.
The novel's cultural and historical backdrop is the student-led Paris May '68 protests. These sparked a much deeper and broader social movement of discontent that quickly escalated into a nationwide general strike involving millions of workers. Hinge events that propelled the country to the brink of revolution and profoundly reshaped European politics. Their mark endures today.
Dear reader, I received the following email from a close friend, herself very versed in literature, after she read Found and Lost You. In a few sentences, she beautifully resumes the emotions I hoped to touch upon when writing the novel.
Dear Jonathan,
I was just about to write to you. I read your latest book the moment I returned from Greece -- devoured it in a single sitting, filled with happiness -- and wanted to write you immediately. But then I put it off, hoping to find the right words later. The next day, Covid struck, and for nearly a month. I couldn't concentrate.
I was deeply moved by the delicacy and precision with which you portrayed the couple's relationship. It felt like a luminous declaration of love to Anna -- and how rare that is. Everything rang true: the way you breathed life into that stage of existence we both inhabit. The human aspect is my soft spot, so I'll start there. You capture so truthfully what your characters feel -- the tenderness, the lightness, the joy. I sense that Menorca has subtly transformed your writing. And then, your way of observing events -- however tragic -- through humor and crisp, exact detail: the art of seeing. An almost metaphorical reading of age and time.
As for the plot itself, Found and Lost You unfolds like a detective novel one reads with delight -- in one sitting, swept along by curiosity and rhythm.
Even now, a month later, its scenes and their atmosphere remain vivid in my mind. And though it's titled Found and Lost, I feel it's more like Lost and Found, for what you have found is immensely precious.
A hug, dear Jonathan,
Th.
About the author.
Jonathan Coan Daifuku is American-born and a RISD and Columbia University graduate. He lived in Paris for more than a decade. Then, as a young student, he actively participated in the Paris '68 protests. He currently lives with his wife on the island of Menorca, Spain. Other published works: A Quid Pro Quo in Paris and The Barcelona Journal Murders.
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