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The Great Swindle cover art

The Great Swindle

By: Pierre Lemaitre
Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong
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Summary

Three soldiers, bound together by a single terrible event in the final days of the First World War, and a scheme to stun an entire country.

Wounded and traumatised by their wartime experience, Albert Maillard and Édouard Péricourt return from the fighting on the Western Front and find themselves struggling in a society where reverence for the dead can never erase the revulsion for those who survived.

But the marbled halls and smoking rooms of the rich and powerful will soon be reeling from Maillard and Péricourt’s fitting choice of revenge: an audacious plot to swindle the whole of France on an epic scale. Meanwhile the third soldier, Henri d’Aulnay Pradelle, is pursuing the hand of a wealthy heiress and plotting a certain scam of his own.

©2013 Editions Albin-Michel - Paris (P)2015 MacLehose Press

Critic reviews

"A really excellent suspense novelist." (Stephen King)
"A masterly epic of post-war France.” (Macha Séry, Le Monde)
"A dark, burning requiem delivered in glorious prose that is as tough and effective as a punch in the face... It will leave you stunned.” (François Busnel, L’Express)

What listeners say about The Great Swindle

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First Class

This story is riveting. I got caught up with the characters and lived in
their world until the end .
It was beautifully read .

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3 people found this helpful

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Very clever and different

This is the best Lemaitre book I have listened to. Very clever story with great characters and a great narrator. Brings post-war Great War France to life.

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1 person found this helpful

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Difficult to enjoy

This book was hard to get on with. The characters are mostly unlikeable, the prose clunky and the subject largely unedifying. It meanders to a somewhat satisfying conclusion, but it could have been so much sharper. I nearly stopped after the first hour, but as it was a book club choice, perservered. The latter parts were better than the earlier, but not much. If you enjoy farce you may like it more than I did.

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The most entertaining book of the year

This was an unexpected delight. beautifully written and read with great presence. possibly the most entertaining book of the year. Highly recommended.

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Very good indeed, on many levels

A gripping story with unforeseen turns of plot - and at the same a moving and intelligent examination of human relationships in the aftermath of war

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An intricate affair

Intriguing adventurous word painting of two men thrown together through unbelievable circumstances. A good read.

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