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The Travels of Daniel Ascher

Review

The Travels of Daniel Ascher

written by Déborah Lévy-Bertherat, translated by Adriana Hunter

Déborah Lévy-Bertherat’s first novel sports its cover art as a worn traveler’s beloved travel suitcase. It’s locked now but ready to pop open with stories from Daniel Ascher. When Hélène Roche, Daniel’s great-niece, comes to Paris for advanced studies in archaeology, she stays in a tiny upper bedroom in his house. Daniel, the eccentric bachelor, is out of the country researching his next novel. 

THE TRAVELS OF DANIEL ASCHER is both Daniel’s and Hélène’s stories. A much-published and prolific writer, Daniel’s nom de plume is H. R. Sanders. Hélène introduces her fellow student, Guillaume, two years her senior, to Daniel upon his return. Guillaume rattles off the names of books in the entire Black Insignia series, duly impressing Hélène. She has not read even a page about the adventures of his boy-hero, Peter, who travels around the globe, mirroring the exotic places the author visits. An inveterate voyeur, Daniel writes the series from Peter’s perspective. Fans await his celebrated “last book in the series” with eagerness.

"THE TRAVELS OF DANIEL ASCHER does not occupy a large space on a bookshelf, but it does contain a volume of literary creativity.... In translation, Adriana Hunter retains the anguish, curiosity, youthful exuberance and joie de vivre of Lévy-Bertherat’s characters."

Daniel remains the mysterious aloof world traveler who eludes close personal ties but does regularly attend large family gatherings. Hélène recalls occasions when he would burst in unannounced, late, somewhat disheveled and sit with the children. He would cavort, act as a mime, tell stories, and sing and laugh with the younger set, rarely interacting with the adults. Daniel’s relationship to the Roches is fuzzy. Hélène’s grandfather’s wife, Suzanne, now widowed, is his sister by adoption. The family’s story is that they took Daniel in as their own son. Alone in France, he had lost both parents and a sister to the Third Reich death camps. His heritage was not a part of their family’s memories, her grandfather asserted. He had always exhibited a wanderlust, becoming a fiction writer.

Soon after Daniel returns in October from Tierra del Fuego, he goes into the reclusive writer mode, harried by his agent to finish the final book in the series. Before locking himself away, he invites Hélène to his living quarters to give her a souvenir. She has never been alone with her great-uncle and is a bit embarrassed when he expounds on his recent trip with childish abandon and vociferous animation. However, he looks different this time, despite the lively storytelling. He shows his age, with white hair apparent, poncho tattered and needing repair, and a weariness in his eyes. His gift is a blood-red stone, with flesh-colored veining, a Tierra del Fuego agate. At the same time, he whispers that she reminds him of his favorite sister. Indeed, her eyes has the same almond shape.  

Hélène’s curiosity about Daniel’s childhood grows. Guillaume wants to know why the author has not inserted that part of his life into his books, with his travels jumping to life in the boy’s adventures. Together, they make a game of the mystery. While Daniel works on his final draft, they travel to Odessa, where he grew up, hoping to uncover pieces left from his father’s business as a photographer.

THE TRAVELS OF DANIEL ASCHER does not occupy a large space on a bookshelf, but it does contain a volume of literary creativity. Descriptions of the Luxembourg Gardens transport readers into the playground through the eyes of a child. Daniel’s unkempt quarters reflect his personality, pulling up memories of a distant relative or friend with whom we can identify. In translation, Adriana Hunter retains the anguish, curiosity, youthful exuberance and joie de vivre of Lévy-Bertherat’s characters. Despite the continuation of dialogue without italics, the storyline is easily understood.

While not a coffee-table travel book, THE TRAVELS OF DANIEL ASCHER is all about the history, love, reconciliation and emotions of fictional people from a real past.

Reviewed by Judy Gigstad on July 31, 2015

The Travels of Daniel Ascher
written by Déborah Lévy-Bertherat, translated by Adriana Hunter

  • Publication Date: May 26, 2015
  • Genres: Fiction
  • Hardcover: 208 pages
  • Publisher: Other Press
  • ISBN-10: 1590517075
  • ISBN-13: 9781590517079