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Book Summary and Reviews of The Man with No Borders by Richard C. Morais

The Man with No Borders by Richard C. Morais

The Man with No Borders

by Richard C. Morais

  • Critics' Consensus (1):
  • Published:
  • Sep 2019, 316 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

A father comes to terms with his mortality and secrets in a heartrending novel of family and forgiveness from the New York Times bestselling author of The Hundred-Foot Journey.

It is a time of reckoning for José María Álvarez, an aristocratic Spanish banker living in a Swiss village with his American wife. Nearing the end of a long and tumultuous life, he's overcome by hallucinatory memories of the past. Among his most cherished memories are those of his boyhood in 1950s Franco-era Spain and the bucolic afternoons he spent salmon fishing on the Sella River with his father, uncle, and much-loved younger brother. But these fond reveries are soon eclipsed by something greater. José's regrets and dark family secrets are flooding back, as is the devastating tragedy that drove José into exile and makes him bear the burden of a soul-deep guilt.

Now, as his three estranged sons return to their father's side, José hopes to outpace death long enough to finally put his house in order and exorcise its demons. Only in his quest for redemption can José begin to understand the meaning of his life—and what his legacy has meant to others.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Morais effectively reveals how heartbreakingly inadequate even vast resources can be in providing a bulwark against the assault of life's most formidable challenges. A meticulous unearthing of the painful contradictions in a privileged life." - Kirkus Reviews

"Immersing readers in José's memories, The Man with No Borders is a fluid, lyrical look at a dramatic and often traumatic life. Fans of Anthony Doerr and Paulette Jiles will enjoy this sweeping novel's sumptuous locales and heart-wrenching vignettes." - Booklist

This information about The Man with No Borders was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Richard C. Morais

Richard C. Morais is an award-winning American novelist and journalist and the author of the New York Times and international bestseller The Hundred-Foot Journey, which was adapted into a 2014 film starring Helen Mirren. He is also the author of the novel Buddhaland Brooklyn and the critically acclaimed biography Pierre Cardin: The Man Who Became a Label.

Morais was both the editor of Barron's Penta and the European bureau chief for Forbes, and he has won three awards and six nominations at the Business Journalist of the Year Awards. His literary works were semifinalists in the William Faulkner–William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition and short-listed for Britain's Ian St. James Award. In 2015, Morais was named Citizen Diplomat of the Year—the highest honor granted by Global Ties U.S., a private-public partnership sponsored by the U.S. State Department—"for promoting cross-cultural understanding in all of his literary work."

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