Listen to a sample
An Honourable Exit
- Author
- Eric Vuillard
- Narrator
- Leighton Pugh
- Publisher
- Pan Macmillan
- Publish Date
- 20 April 2023
- Run Time
- 3 hours 45 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
Not available in your country
We don't have the rights to sell this audiobook where you are. If it's already in your library you can still listen to it in My Books.
What to expect
From the International Booker Prize shortlisted author of The Order of the Day and The War of the Poor comes a searing account of a conflict that dealt a fatal blow to French colonialism.
A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2023
'Excoriating and profound . . . A remarkable work' - Scotsman
'Absolutely spectacular' - France Info
19 October 1950. The war is not going to plan. In Paris, politicians gather to discuss what to do about Indochina. The conflict is unpopular back home in France: too expensive, and too far away for the public to care. Withdrawal is not an option – a global power cannot surrender to an army of peasants – but victory is impossible without more soldiers and more money. The soldiers can be sourced from the colonies, but the money is out of the question. A solution needs to be found.
In this gripping and shocking novel, Éric Vuillard exposes the tangled web of politicians, bankers and titans of industry who all had a vested interest in France’s prolonged presence in lands far from Paris. Skilfully skewering the guilty, Vuillard shows us how key players in conflicts throughout history often have a motivation even deeper and darker than nationalism and political ideology – greed. As well as bringing scenes from the battlefields to life, Vuillard looks beyond this visceral reality on the ground to the cold calculations of the boardroom elite with the power to turn a military win or loss into their financial gain.
Short, sharp and brutal, An Honourable Exit is a journey behind closed doors to witness how history is really made.
Critics Review
-
Excoriating and profound . . . A remarkable work . . . I cannot think of an Anglophone author who writes with such polemical, poetical indignation
The Scotsman
-
Powerful . . . An entracingly nightmarish analysis of the First Indochina War
The Spectator
-
Clever and scathing
Le Temps
-
Vuillard writes into grey areas of history
New York Times
See more reviews See fewer reviews
-
A work of ferocious reckoning . . . chilling . . . shine[s] a hard light on figures who might otherwise disappear into the jumbled backdrop of the past
Wall Street Journal
-
Absolutely spectacular
France Info
-
Pages clenched like fists ready to strike. It is the eternal war of the powerful against the weak that Vuillard stages in each of his books
L'Obs
-
Sparkling . . . By his pen, historical figures become beings of flesh and blood; we hear them breathe, we see them sweat
L'Histoire
-
The challenge for Vuillard is to tear the rancid nostalgia for 'the good old days' of the colonies, for the chic, elegant, confident and honourable colonial France, to pieces
La Croix
-
Brilliant . . . An Honourable Exit not only illuminates the machinations behind the Vietnam debacle for the French, but shows just how damaging an anachronistic hunger for domination can be.
Arts Fuse
User Reviews
No reviews yet.
Details
- Author
- Eric Vuillard
- Narrator
- Leighton Pugh
- Duration
- 3 hours 45 minutes
- Release Date
- 20 April 2023
- ISBN
- 9781035003990
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Pan Macmillan
- Genre
- Historical fiction, Vietnam War fiction, Colonialism and imperialism, Warfare and defence
Synopsis
From the International Booker Prize shortlisted author of The Order of the Day and The War of the Poor comes a searing account of a conflict that dealt a fatal blow to French colonialism.A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2023'Excoriating and profound . . . A remarkable work' - Scotsman'Absolutely spectacular' - France Info19 October 1950. The war is not going to plan. In Paris, politicians gather to discuss what to do about Indochina. The conflict is unpopular back home in France: too expensive, and too far away for the public to care. Withdrawal is not an option – a global power cannot surrender to an army of peasants – but victory is impossible without more soldiers and more money. The soldiers can be sourced from the colonies, but the money is out of the question. A solution needs to be found.In this gripping and shocking novel, Éric Vuillard exposes the tangled web of politicians, bankers and titans of industry who all had a vested interest in France’s prolonged presence in lands far from Paris. Skilfully skewering the guilty, Vuillard shows us how key players in conflicts throughout history often have a motivation even deeper and darker than nationalism and political ideology – greed. As well as bringing scenes from the battlefields to life, Vuillard looks beyond this visceral reality on the ground to the cold calculations of the boardroom elite with the power to turn a military win or loss into their financial gain.Short, sharp and brutal, An Honourable Exit is a journey behind closed doors to witness how history is really made.
About xigxag
xigxag is an independent, UK-based audiobook platform and the UK's only B Corp certified audiobook company. We offer nearly 150,000 audiobooks, all with professional human narration. No AI-generated voices. xigxag is rated an Ethical Consumer Best Buy for audiobooks and a top-rated ethical bookshop.
There is no subscription. You buy the audiobooks you want, you own them permanently, and prices start at $13.95. The more you listen over the year, the less you pay per book, and there is always a selection in Listen for Less from $7.95. You can also send audiobooks as gifts using our audiobook gift cards or in-app gifting.
Every audiobook on xigxag has honest reviews covering both the book and the narration, and our community features make it easy to share what you are listening to, discover what others recommend, and find your next listen.
Download or stream on iOS, Android, or in your browser. Browse the full catalogue at xigxag.co.uk.