Romain Gary

The Kites begins with a young boy, Ludo, coming of age on a small farm in Normandy under the care of his eccentric kite-making Uncle Ambrose. Ludo's life changes the day he meets Lila, a girl from the aristocratic Polish family that owns the estate next door. In a single glance, Ludo falls in love forever; Lila, on the other hand, disappears back into the woods. And so begins Ludo's adventure of longing, passion, and love for the elusive Lila, who begins to reciprocate his feelings just as Europe descends into World War II. After Germany invades Poland, Lila and her family go missing, and Ludo's devotion to saving her from the Nazis becomes a journey to save his love, his loved ones, his country, and ultimately himself.Filled with unforgettable characters who fling all they have into the fight to keep their hopes--and themselves--alive, The Kites is Romain Gary's poetic call for resistance in whatever form it takes. A war hero himself, Gary embraced and fought for humanity in all its nuanced complexities, in the belief that a hero might be anyone who has the courage to love and hope.

A New York Times Notable Book 2018'A rebel French writer ... a brilliant storyteller, a master craftsman and one of France's most original writers' Independent 'The Kites is a novel touched from beginning to end with grace, a great saga about the innate dignity of love that succeeds in the feat of being funny and poetic, tender and sharp, committed and fierce, with a touch of brilliance in the art of dialogue' Muriel Barbery, author of The Elegance of the HedgehogA quiet village in Normandy, 1932. Ludo is ten years old and lives with his uncle, a kindly, eccentric creator of elaborate kites. One day, sitting in a strawberry field, Ludo meets the beautiful young Polish aristocrat Lila. And so begins Ludo's lifelong adventure of love and longing for Lila, who only begins to return his feelings just as Europe descends into the devastation of World War 2. After Poland and France fall, Lila and Ludo are separated. Ludo's friends in the village must find their own ways of resisting: the local restaurateur who is dedicated above all to France's haute cuisine, a Jewish brothel madam who sleeps with her unwitting enemies and Ludo, who cycles past the Nazis every day, passing on messages for the French Resistance - thinking always of Lila.

Vse nachalos so stolknovenija dvukh odinochestv na ulitsakh Parizha. Ona rassypala produkty, kotorye nesla domoj, a emu nechem bylo zaplatit za taksi - neznakomtsy, kotorye prosto vyruchili drug druga. Muzhchina i zhenschina, oni stolko terjali v svoej zhizni. Ikh budto sotkali iz poter. Teper im pridetsja proverit na sebe, sposobno li teplo drugogo cheloveka utolit razedajuschuju tosku. Mozhet, ljubov - eto edinstvennoe, chto spasaet ot odinochestva i strakha?

Available again with a new introduction by David Bellos, the distinguished translator of Georges Perec and biographer of Romain Gary, "The Roots of Heaven" takes as its subject the deliberate and relentless hunting and killing of elephants for their ivory. Morel, a former dentist whose survival in a Nazi concentration camp he attributes to his fixation on the freedom and companionability of elephants, travels to Africa intent on stopping the slaughter. He circulates a petition demanding their killing be made illegal. It attracts two signers: a disgraced American from the Korean War and a call girl described as "just another animal who needed protection." From here things get really interesting"€"politically, socially and culturally. Morel realizes that action is necessary; a notorious elephant hunter is shot in the buttocks, while a female trophy hunter is stripped naked and publicly whipped. "You never teach a man anything by killing him," he observes, "On the contrary you make him forget everything." He gains a following"€"some drawn by his cause, some by political expediency, some by a need to believe in something, anything, bigger than themselves. He is chased and cornered at Lake Kuru, where a vast assemblage of elephants has converged to drink, and where this novel concludes in a brilliant and memorable climax. In 1956 this book exploded into the world. A huge bestseller in France, it won the country's most prestigious award, the Prix Goncourt. In the U.S. it was an immediate bestseller, and the basis of a spectacular movie. Why? Gary was hardly a household name. French novels were rarely a popular success. But the subject and the characters he depicted were vivid and unforgettable.

'You will be a great hero, a general, Gabriele d'Annunzio, Ambassador of France!'For his whole life, Romain Gary's fierce, eccentric motherhad only one aim: to make her son a great man. And she did. This, his thrilling, wildly romantic autobiography, is the story of his journey from poverty in Eastern Europe to the sensual world of the Côte d'Azur and on to wartime pilot, resistance hero, diplomat, filmmaker, star and one of the most famed French writers of his age.

"I grew up in the certitude that one day I should help give back the earth to those who ennoble it with their courage and warm it with their love."Promise at Dawn begins as the story of a mother's sacrifice: alone and poor, she fiercely battles to give her son the very best. Romain Gary chronicles his childhood in Russia, Poland, and on the French Riviera and recounts his adventurous life as a young man fighting for France in World War II. But above all he tells the story of the love for his mother that was his life--their secret and private planet, their wonderland "born out of a mother's murmur into a child's ear, a promise whispered at dawn of future triumphs and greatness, of justice and love."

The Kites begins with a young boy, Ludo, coming of age on a small farm in Normandy under the care of his eccentric kite-making Uncle Ambrose. Ludo's life changes the day he meets Lila, a girl from the aristocratic Polish family that owns the estate next door. In a single glance, Ludo falls in love forever; Lila, on the other hand, disappears back into the woods. And so begins Ludo's adventure of longing, passion, and love for the elusive Lila, who begins to reciprocate his feelings just as Europe descends into World War II. After Germany invades Poland, Lila and her family go missing, and Ludo's devotion to saving her from the Nazis becomes a journey to save his love, his loved ones, his country, and ultimately himself.Filled with unforgettable characters who fling all they have into the fight to keep their hopes--and themselves--alive, The Kites is Romain Gary's poetic call for resistance in whatever form it takes. A war hero himself, Gary embraced and fought for humanity in all its nuanced complexities, in the belief that a hero might be anyone who has the courage to love and hope.

Dans le roman La vie devant soi un des personnages, le docteur Katz, dit au personnage principal Mohammed (Momo) qu?il ne doit pas pleurer parce qu?il a encore toute la vie devant lui. Mais Momo, dont l?identité n?est connue que peu à peu, sait que pour tous les vieillards de son entourage les conditions de vie ne s?améliorent pas du tout par le temps. Bien au contraire, il faut lutter contre le vieillissement qui n?amène que des ennuis, comme c?est surtout le cas de sa mère adoptive Madame Rosa. L?antithèse amour/optimisme et angoisse/pessimisme se manifeste à travers toute l?histoire. Il y a des flash-backs ainsi que des projections dans l?avenir. C?est l?âge de Momo qui constitue le fil conducteur des événements racontés. Le style du livre est caractérisé par l?humour et le pittoresque. Edition abrégée, mais à peine simplifiée. Easy Readers er bearbejdede og forkortede udgaver af romaner og noveller. De findes på niveau A, B, C og D, hvor A er lettest. Niveauerne relaterer til Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (level A2 til B2).