De Potter's Grand Tour

Publisher Marketing: A gripping novel about a seemingly charmed marriage and a mysterious disappearance at sea In 1905, a tourist agent and amateur antiques collector named Armand de Potter mysteriously disappeared off the coast of Greece. His body is never recovered and his wife is left to manage his affairs on her own. But as she starts to piece together his life, she realizes that everything was not as he had said. Infused with details from letters and diary entries, the narrative twists forward and backward through time, revealing a lost world of fake identities, underground antiques networks, and a husband who wasn t what he seemed. Originally from Belgium, young Armand de Potter comes to New York without a penny in his pocket. With cunning ambition, he quickly makes a name for himself as both a worldwide travel guide and a trusted if illegal antiques dealer. After marrying, he moves the family to a luxurious villa in Cannes and embraces an aristocratic life. But as he grows increasingly entangled in the antiques trade and his touring business begins to falter, Armand s control starts to fray. As the world closes in, he believes he only has one option left. Told with masterful narrative agility, "De Potter s Grand Tour" is a tale as grand as the tour guide at its center. Drawing on real letters, legal documents, and a trove of diaries only recently discovered, Joanna Scott points delicately toward the story s historical basis and unfolds a detective tale of the highest order. " Review Citations: New York Times Book Review 09/14/2014 pg. 12 (EAN 9780374710460, Open Ebook) Contributor Bio:  Scott, Joanna Joanna Scott is the author of ten books, including "The Manikin", which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; "Various Antidotes" and "Arrogance", which were both finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award; and the critically acclaimed "Make Believe", "Tourmaline", "Liberation", and "Follow Me". She is a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Lannan Award. Contributor Bio:  Ochlan, P J P. J. Ochlan s work behind the microphone began in 1987 as a young voice-over talent with many commercials and promos. More recently he spent ten years as a Southern California radio personality with programs on several stations. And now, in addition to his ongoing voice-over work, he is an acclaimed and record-setting audiobook narrator with dozens of fiction and nonfiction titles to his credit.