A riveting, on-the-edge-of-your-seat tale about the notorious 1978 kidnapping of Baron Édouard-Jean “Wado” Empain, intertwined with the story of his famous grandfather, the first baron and builder of the Paris Métro. A multigenerational saga told against the backdrops of both Belle Époque and 1970s high-fashion Paris. What does it take to create a dynasty? What does it take to keep one going? And what does it take to save the life of the dazzling but flawed man who inherited it all? Launched in the 1880s by the first baron, the Empain industrial empire spread from Belgium and France to span more than a dozen countries. When Wado took over, he further expanded the company...
Publisher: Dutton (April 5, 2022) Pages: 368 pages ISBN-10: 0593183800 ISBN-13: 978-0593183809 ASIN: B099MMKDPZ
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New Orleanian Tom Sancton was the longtime Paris Bureau Chief for Time magazine, where he wrote more than 50 cover stories. He has also written for Vanity Fair, Fortune, and other leading magazines. In 1998, he co-authored the international bestseller Death of a Princess (St. Martin’s), on the circumstances surrounding Princess Diana’s death. His latest work, The Bettencourt Affair (Dutton), describes the scandal surrounding the world’s richest woman, L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, 94, and the much younger protégé on whom she bestowed nearly a billion dollars—until Liliane’s daughter sued him for elder abuse. A Rhodes Scholar who studied at Harvard and Oxford, Sancton has taught creative writing at Tulane University and now lives mainly in France. Under the stage name Tommy Sancton, he is also a well-known jazz clarinetist with more than a dozen albums to his credit. In 2014, the French government named him a Chevalier (Knight) in the Order of Arts and Letters.