A book touted by the club booksellers France Info, which disappoints although interesting. The main character has no substance - no history, little is known about its origins, fears, which prevents the reader to identify with him, forge a deep bond that would make us feel emotions as as the story progresses. In addition, this hero is perfect - it has weaknesses, but it is generous, it must be beautiful because women fall for him, he is human and humanist, he needs nothing, not luxury, barely what to eat, na 'never cold nor hot nor anything - again, this surface perfection drags the reader, and prevents identification, relationship. His friends have humor, her less. His friends have faults, it least - well, he can not read Latin. It has two love affairs, but the author remains outside his hero - we do not understand what drives him, which pulls it, which made the dream. To all men who want to identify with the human dilemma of how to choose between two very different women with dreams, perspectives, ways of living so different ... the author offers no solution - it crashes with us 2 turnovers as incomprehensible as sudden. Not to mention Ken Follett SEVERAL mentioned in comments, to those who love human stories intertwined in history, or at the crossroads of worlds in continuous change, I would not know what to say except that the French authors have much to learn Anglophone writers (Atwood, Roth, but Ishiguro, Mistry, etc. and most of all Powers). That said, the book is well constructed, the characters, if they lack depth, credible, and the pageant is otherwise faithful (frankly I do not know, and the author was kind enough to tell what is right and what is less so in the end of the book), the less credible. To those who are or who love Nancy Lorraine and / or (the history of) medicine, this book will live nice moments without being memorable and famous recipes of herbal teas to try at home.
