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Award-winning
Puerto Rican writer López Nieves presents an original novel that is good
to the last page. For over two centuries, hordes of people have visited
the Bibliothque Nacionale de Paris to see a bejeweled reliquary that
contains Voltaire's heart. So when the authenticity of the remains is
suddenly put into question, the French president immediately issues
orders to mobilize the country's top scientists, diplomatic corps, and
the military to settle the grave matter of national pride. Written in
the form of e-mail exchanges, the novel follows Roland de Luziers, a
professor of genetics at the Sorbonne, and historian Dr. Ysabeau de
Vassy on an extraordinary journey to a remote Benedictine mission in
the French countryside and across the ocean to Argentina, Mexico, and
Puerto Rico to establish the validity of Voltaire's remains. Following
a battery of DNA tests conducted on living descendents of the great
French thinker and several body exhumations, Roland and Ysabeau unearth
surprising evidence that could rewrite history while damaging the
government's reputation and undermining France's cultural legacy. A
real page-turner, this epistolary narrative delivers a work of
historical fiction through sharp dialog, an engaging plot, and
effective character development. Strongly recommended for all public
and academic libraries, and for bookstores. -Diana Kirby, Palm Beach
Cty. Lib. System, FL
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