Category: Europe

Announcing ‘The Old World Dies’

Friends, It’s been 16 years since “Rolling the Bones” and while you might think I’ve been goofing off all this time, au contraire! For here comes “The Old World Dies,” a comic romp through France guaranteed to get you through the rest of the winter with your sanity intact. You can get your very own copy of “The World Dies” in e-book form or in print on Amazon sites worldwide. PLEASE leave a review on Amazon, Facebook or Twitter. And tell your friends, colleagues and secret lovers. Hell, tell your cats, dogs and raccoons, too. MERCI. Happy reading! To pair with a Château La Tour de By. An excellent Médoc. All vintages recommended.

‘The Old World Dies’ out Jan. 15!

“The Old World Dies” is a comic satire on the final decline of France and the cleverly melodramatic adventures of a dreamy painter of nudes, his colorful models and spinster benefactors, an American swindler, an unlucky taxi driver, a savage teenage gang girl, and a well-lubricated cast of supporting actors, living or not, as they scurry through the great cultural and social collapse. The mad dash for the exits opens to the pleasant tinkling of sheep bells high in the Pyrenees where nature-struck Parisian artists wander through the fog looking for light to the bemusement of the Basque people, plunges into the Sturm und Drang of Paris where the well-heeled cower as suburban riffraff rush the walls and pet poodles take to speaking Portuguese, then swings out to sunny California and drinks with a con artist in a nice bar located on a dangerous coastal road, before arriving at a picture-postcard resort in Mexico where a beach artist dashes off paintings at sunset of those who, deserving or not, survived.

Out with dystopia, in with satire

The latest and hopefully final revision of the summary of my new novel, due Jan. 15.

“The Old World Dies” is a sprawling satire on a European age of decline and the tragicomic adventures of a dreamy painter of nudes, his colorful models and spinster benefactors, an American art swindler, an unlucky Paris taxi driver, a savage gang girl, and an amusing cast of supporting actors, living or not, as a wave of social anarchy crashes through France. Their absurd saga begins for purely artistic reasons high in the foggy, sheep-covered Pyrenees where the Basque people, who have lived forever, are wisely ignoring the turmoil in the lowlands, plunges into the melodramatic mayhem of the City of Light as the rotten elite and clueless bourgeoisie alike cower before hordes of suburban riffraff thundering at the walls, then wends through a nonlinear series of unlikely coincidences to a nice bar in California on a deadly coastal road, before arriving at a postcard paradise in Mexico where a beach artist dashes off paintings at sunset of those who, deserving or not, survived.

What’s ‘The Old World Dies’ about?

“The Old World Dies” is a dystopian-lite tableau of a European age of final decline about a down-and-out painter, his spinster benefactors and his exotic models, as well as one very unlucky taxi driver, as they struggle against great odds to survive a tragicomic wave of chaos washing over Paris and threatening to send them and their desperate last dreams into the abyss. Their absurd and spicy tales carry the brave reader through a Boschian world where the narrative slope plunges from the luminous heights of the Pyrenees and dark-eyed Basque country into the mayhem of the City of Light and its forlorn suburbs, thence by several wacky twists of fate to a nice bar along the dangerous coastal roads of California, before arriving at an ersatz paradise on the western shore of Mexico where a gentle beach artist dashes off a painting of the lucky few survivors at sunset.

 

You can pre-order ‘The Old World Dies’

My new novel is now available for pre-order. That makes it an early holiday gift for everyone, albeit one you buy! Here’s the place: http://tinyurl.com/ycj629tq
Print edition coming out at the same time, Jan. 15. So if you don’t want the Kindle version, check back for the paperback, which I’ll have ready in a couple of weeks. Merci!

 

 

New Jarrard novel out in January

A sneak peak at the cover, subject to change
and whim between now and publication day.

Cognac, la saga d’un esprit

Cognac, la saga d’un esprit raconte l’histoire d’un des alcools les plus connus au monde et donne une vision originale de la profession du cognac d’aujourd’hui, vue de l’intérieur grâce à de nombreux entretiens. Ce livre est la traduction en français de Cognac, the Seductive Saga of the World’s Most Coveted Spirit, ouvrage paru en 2005 chez John Wiley (New York). Kyle Jarrard y retrace le développement de la viticulture dans la région depuis le temps des Romains, puis l’avènement de l’eau-de-vie au XVIe siècle, l’expansion de la distillation au cours des années 1600, ainsi que l’âge d’or du cognac au milieu du XIXe siècle. Tout au long du chemin, il révèle comment les distillateurs charentais ont surmonté l’agonie du vignoble après la crise du phylloxéra, il dévoile les facettes parfois curieuses de l’occupation allemande et parcourt tous les défis qui ont secoué la région de production, en particulier celui de l’excellente forme de l’après-guerre quand le marché s’est étendu aux quatre coins du monde. Le livre offre aussi un regard unique sur l’état de l’art actuel de l’industrie du cognac, vécu dans les coulisses des plus petits producteurs jusqu’aux plus renommés, les Hennessy, Courvoisier, Martell, Rémy Martin, Delamain et autres marques légendaires. Sa rencontre avec tous les métiers connexes, qu’ils soient fabricants de barriques de chêne, de bouchons ou d’étiquettes, ouvre en grand les portes sur cette eau-de-vie universellement appréciée et pourtant souvent repliée sur elle-même. Un regard aigu sur une histoire turbulente, parvenue aujourd’hui à un marché mondial, ainsi apparaît Cognac, la saga d’un esprit …

Achetez votre copie ici

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Cognac: The Seductive Saga of the World’s Most Coveted Spirit

I wrote Cognac: The Seductive Saga of the World’s Most Coveted Spirit because no one had ever put together a readable, independent history of this marvelous spirit. My connections to Cognac country inspired me to dig deep into an incredible story that ranges from an exploration of the ancient bedrock, to the long and tortured development of wine growing in this region of southwest France, to the phylloxera epidemic that nearly wiped out the industry, to the machinery of modern, foreign-owned Cognac giants spreading their eau-de-vie all around the world. Frank Prial, former wine critic for The New York Times, called “Cognac” an “enthralling volume … a compelling story, not just about the world’s best known eau-de-vie, but about the people who make it and the often violent history of the remarkable but little-known region of France from which it comes.”

Publishers Weekly wrote: “It’s fitting that a Paris-based novelist and International Herald Tribune editor should chronicle the history of the famously refined French brandy. And Jarrard does a nice job of it, offering a thorough, well-researched and objective history of Cognac. He begins with a geological history of the French province of Charente, on the Atlantic coast, where the town of Cognac is located. The Romans brought the first grapes to the region, but it would be centuries before viniculture really took root there. The earliest attempts to make what we now call Cognac began during the Middle Ages, as alchemists and apothecaries experimented with putting local grape pressings through their distillation apparatuses. While France evolved from a feudal kingdom into an imperial, colonial power, the cognac-making process developed, although factors like weather and warfare often prevented distilleries from obtaining the necessary raw materials. By the Napoleonic era, however, cognac began appearing on the world market, and its makers worked at refining their product and their methods as demand for the elegant, amber, aromatic brandy increased. Jarrard brings the story to the present, examining the various brands dominating the market today, including Hennessy, Rémy-Martin and Courvoisier. It’s a must for aficionados.

Buy your copy here

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