Riversong Books
Los Angeles | Dallas | London
http://sulisinternational.com/home/keledei-publications/
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
A Taxi to Biarritz: A Pianist’s Journey of a Lifetime by Mathieu Ortlieb is a haunting and heartfelt novel that intertwines music, memory, and redemption against the backdrop of World War II. At 83, Yvonne, a reclusive former pianist, embarks on an unexpected road trip from Paris to Biarritz with Jean-Pierre, her disillusioned taxi driver. Haunted by her past, Yvonne confronts the guilt of her unwitting complicity in her father’s Nazi collaboration, whose Biarritz home became a site of torture during the occupation. As they travel, old photographs and vivid flashbacks unravel her story—her forced role masking prisoners’ cries with piano scales, the loss of her Jewish friends Myriam and Isi, and her coerced time as a guard at Ravensbrück.
Through lush, sensory prose and musical motifs, Ortlieb crafts a journey of self-discovery, as Yvonne grapples with her father’s legacy and her own silenced past. Jean-Pierre, battling gambling debts and personal despair, finds his life transformed by their bond. The narrative crescendos with a poignant reunion with Isi, a Holocaust survivor, offering Yvonne a chance at peace. After her departure to a nursing home, Jean-Pierre uncovers archives revealing her father’s crimes, fulfilling her final request to donate them. This evocative tale blends historical depth with emotional resonance, exploring guilt, forgiveness, and the healing power of connection.
Perfect for fans of literary fiction and WWII narratives, A Taxi to Biarritz is a moving meditation on the past’s enduring echo, destined to linger in readers’ hearts.
About the Author
After a career as a classical musician, then fifteen years as an actor (theater, television, cinema), Mathieu Ortlieb met the producers of the iconic show Strip-Tease in France and directed around twenty of the program’s most notable films. Since then, he has devoted himself fully to writing. In his book My Most Belgian Years, he recounts his experience as a director. He is also the adapter and co-author of a story set during the Second World War: an unfinished and posthumous text by his father, Jean-Jacques Ortlieb, which retraces his war years as a young Alsatian.
About Riversong Books
Stories are the music of our lives—they connect us and speak to us in ways that nonfiction cannot. An imprint of Sulis International, Riversong Books publishes historical, literary, contemporary, science fiction, fantasy, and religious fiction that not only entertain, but allow readers to question, celebrate, and explore what it means to be human. Riversong also publishes reprints, both out-of-print novels or older works not readily available in print or eBook form. Visit http://sulisinternational.com/home/riversong-books/
For information and to submit a manuscript, visit
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