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Le Centre d'appel
A partir d'un centre d'appel délocalisé, une bouleversante histoire d'aujourd'hui se noue entre des êtres qui n'auraient jamais dû se rencontrer Constantine, téléphoniste à Dakar ; Aimé, qui n'en peut plus de vendre ses contrats d'assurance; Luc, handicapé coincé dans sa banlieue et Ali, qui vit sous le soleil de Dieu. Métissage du monde, abolition des frontières, course au rendement, vies marquées par la solitude et les inégalités : de Dakar à Paris, José Frèches nous révèle ici une nouvelle facette de son exception. Quel talent de conteur populaire !
336 pages, Paperback
First published March 23, 2006
2 people want to read
About the author
José Frèches
82 books16 followersEducation (school): São Paolo, Rome, Lisbon, Aix-en-Provence, Paris
Education (university): Institut d’Etudes Politiques of Aix-en-Provence,
Degrees in History of Art and Chinese, Masters in History, former pupil of ENA.
Professional career: curator of the Guimet museum at 21 years of age and lecturer at the Ecole du Louvre, José Frèches has held various positions in the communications, audiovisual and culture sectors (setting up the Vidéothèque of Paris and becoming President of Midi Libre)
Today, he is a member of the Artistic Council of the National Museums Group (Réunion des musées nationaux), and among other activities he puts his energy into a Parisian Communications Agency and is also the director of an art and antiques gallery in the Gard.
He initiated in 2005 the International Biennial of Chinese Contemporary Art in Montpellier, an event testifying for the huge development of China and of its culture. His novelistic trilogies, The Legend of the Jade and The Silk Empress (XO, 2002 and 2004) were tremendously successful: they sold more than one million copies and were translated into 11 languages. His biographical novel about Buddha, I Buddha, appealed to the general reader (90.000 copies were sold in France, apart from paperback) and to nine foreign publishers.
His first trilogy The Jade Disk is a story, set during the Warring States Period in disunited China. It tells the story from the character of the rich merchant and eventual prime-minister Lü Buwei - real father of the first emperor of China Qin Shi Huang. It portrays the struggles between the other kingdoms and Kingdom of Qin, destined to unite China.
His second trilogy The Empress of Silk is set in Medieval China during the Tang Dynasty. It depicts the story of Emperor Gaozong, the third emperor of Tang and his prominent and ambitious wife Wu Zetian, who after his death, virtually became the ruler of the country and the first female emperor in the history of China.
His latest series The Empire of Tears is set in mid-19th Century China, during the Opium Wars, where the empire is struggling and slowly decaying.
Education (university): Institut d’Etudes Politiques of Aix-en-Provence,
Degrees in History of Art and Chinese, Masters in History, former pupil of ENA.
Professional career: curator of the Guimet museum at 21 years of age and lecturer at the Ecole du Louvre, José Frèches has held various positions in the communications, audiovisual and culture sectors (setting up the Vidéothèque of Paris and becoming President of Midi Libre)
Today, he is a member of the Artistic Council of the National Museums Group (Réunion des musées nationaux), and among other activities he puts his energy into a Parisian Communications Agency and is also the director of an art and antiques gallery in the Gard.
He initiated in 2005 the International Biennial of Chinese Contemporary Art in Montpellier, an event testifying for the huge development of China and of its culture. His novelistic trilogies, The Legend of the Jade and The Silk Empress (XO, 2002 and 2004) were tremendously successful: they sold more than one million copies and were translated into 11 languages. His biographical novel about Buddha, I Buddha, appealed to the general reader (90.000 copies were sold in France, apart from paperback) and to nine foreign publishers.
His first trilogy The Jade Disk is a story, set during the Warring States Period in disunited China. It tells the story from the character of the rich merchant and eventual prime-minister Lü Buwei - real father of the first emperor of China Qin Shi Huang. It portrays the struggles between the other kingdoms and Kingdom of Qin, destined to unite China.
His second trilogy The Empress of Silk is set in Medieval China during the Tang Dynasty. It depicts the story of Emperor Gaozong, the third emperor of Tang and his prominent and ambitious wife Wu Zetian, who after his death, virtually became the ruler of the country and the first female emperor in the history of China.
His latest series The Empire of Tears is set in mid-19th Century China, during the Opium Wars, where the empire is struggling and slowly decaying.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 22, 2009
Modern, mondilisation, centres d'appels - une réalitité de nos jours. Dans ce roman: le centre d'appel est
à Dakar et le client et la compagnie d'assurances à Paris... les vies de 4 personnes se croissent. Un aperçu de la vie d'une jeune diplômé à Dakar. A story about individuals living in today's world of technology and travel and the mingling of cultures, ideas -- about the sadness of the solitude these people often feel : due to feeling alone with ideas not accepted by their peers/culture, due to physical handicaps, due to poverty, due to the stress of keeping a 'good' job. Not a great review of this book, but it is an interesting book.
à Dakar et le client et la compagnie d'assurances à Paris... les vies de 4 personnes se croissent. Un aperçu de la vie d'une jeune diplômé à Dakar. A story about individuals living in today's world of technology and travel and the mingling of cultures, ideas -- about the sadness of the solitude these people often feel : due to feeling alone with ideas not accepted by their peers/culture, due to physical handicaps, due to poverty, due to the stress of keeping a 'good' job. Not a great review of this book, but it is an interesting book.
Displaying 1 of 1 review