Set in the late twentieth century, Hanoi Blues explores the political fear and struggle for survival and true freedom by the Vietnamese people after the violent upheavals of the earlier part of the century. The reader is placed directly within the disturbing situation created by the current totalitarian regime with its oppressive atmosphere and startling mix of progress, prosperity and poverty. The central characters are a young globe-trotting French journalist and her lover, a radical Vietnamese artist. As we follow their intimate relationship through her eyes, we are progressively confronted with dilemmas of cultural differences in sexual relationships, public opinion, omnipresent manipulative propaganda, varying concepts of freedom, and customs of society with its particular prejudices. The reader shares in their mutual passions, separation and loss with equal intensity. Inspired by the author's own experiences of living in the country, this story resounds with stark authenticity.
The French writer Jeanne Cordelier was born in Paris in 1944. Her first novel, La Dérobade, was a literary and commercial success in France as well as abroad. It was translated into 19 languages. In English, the title is The Life, published in 1978 by Viking press and translated by Harry Mathews.
In 1980, the author left the Paris establishment, made her own choices, and founded a family in Sweden. She lived and worked in Sweden for seventeen years. Among her contributions to Swedish cultural life was her inspiring advisory role to the publishing house, Interculture, that specialised in translating French authors into Swedish. Her son was 20 years of age in the year 2000. He has graduated from London School of Economics and Westminster University after studying international history and diplomacy.
In 1997, Jeanne Cordelier and her family broke up from Sweden and started a period of living in developing countries, India, Vietnam, Ethiopia and Albania. By 2004, she returned to Europe to settle in a rural environment in the south-west of France. Restless always, Jeanne Cordelier has also lived in Belgium, Italy, United States, Canada, Vietnam, Ethiopia and Albania. She has spent time in 14 countries in Europe, eight countries in Asia, and six countries in Africa.
But where she prefers to be, is in the land of words. A country that, just like life itself, every day requires of us to improve. Just a matter of not forgetting that under the seat, whichever it is, there is no life vest.
During 1997-99 Jeanne Cordelier lived in Vietnam, which inspired a novel about Vietnam, Hanoi Blues. During two years she lived in Ethiopia, where Rimbaud preceded her. Those years influenced Les mots du moi, where one will always find images from all those countries where Jeanne has been rambling. She has now settled in France, where she lives in a restored farm house in a rural area in the south-west of the country. Her latest book is her memoirs 1976-2010, Reconstruction, Phébus 2010.
For more information, Jeanne's website is: www.jeannecordelier.com
