FEAST OR FAMINE

The Man with No Borders (2019) is set in Zurich, Switzerland, from the 1970s to the present day, with a retrospective of the author’s childhood in Ribadesella, Spain, in the 1950s.     José María Álvarez is a Spanish banker living in Switzerland with his American wife Lisa when his failing health is diagnosed. The day of reckoning will soon arrive, and his three sons—Sam, John, and Rob—come to his side. José must put his house and legacy in order before his death.  José narrates his own end-of-life days, his thougths of the future for his wife and sons, his current feelings, and his hallucinations of the past. His thinks back to his rural childhood spent fishing with his father, uncle Augustin, and younger brother Juan. He remembers the ‘most honest’ conversation he ever had with his mother when he was eighteen years old.   When his sons arrive, José has regrets, and tries to heal past wounds, and expose past secrets. He seeks forgiveness.  This is a novel about

Le Ranelagh Theatre, in the sixteenth arrondissement, is one of the oldest theatres in Paris. It was built in 1755 as an annex to a castle during the reign of King Louis XV. Voltaire and Rousseau have performed there. It was abandoned after the French Revolution, but became popular again from 1895. It now has a new music room in Renaissance style  with  mouldings, columns, and boxes, designed by architect Alban Chambon at the request of the owner Louis  Mors. The architect's legacy is the inscription on the door of the theatre: "For me and my friends." The 300-room theatre was listed as a Historical Monument in 1977. One room of the theatre has been a cinema since 1931.  MARTINA NICOLLS  is an international aid and development consultant, and the  author   of: Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edg

MARTINA NICOLLS  is an international aid and development consultant, and the  author   of: Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

MARTINA NICOLLS  is an international aid and development consultant, and the  author  of: Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).