Hervé draws inspiration from his father's story

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From Finistère to the end of the world… It's quite a journey that the father ofHervé Gouerec did in the last century, up to the former French concession of Shanghai.
“My father wrote his childhood memoirs a long time ago. I used them to tell a story,” he explains. It's a first work for this author from Landisacq (Orne).

As a testimony to the history of France

He had typed the text from his father 32 years ago: “I’ve always kept it. I had already thought at the time that this could be the subject of a book later. And 4 or 5 years ago, I went back to it and I asked my uncle and my aunt, who experienced this era. » It was with the biographer Anne Monneau that he was able to produce this book.

If it is a family story, it is also a historical testimony 1930s: his father was born in the French concession and lived there until the age of 11.

An adventure in China

“My grandfather got involved in French police before leaving for Shanghai, after taking the boat. I also talk about the different stopovers, such as Saigon, in the book,” says Hervé Gouérec.

From memories of his father, the author then did historical research on this period.

Under the bombs

In the story, Hervé Gouérec relates the departure, then life in China, the different activities, etc. “They went by rickshaw to school. There is some photos at the end of the book which bear witness to reality,” he explains. All this is told through the eyes of a child.

It's a part of the history of France, of expatriates in China, in Shanghai. This story of France is not very well known.

In 1937 the Battle of Shanghaipitting China against Japan. “My father experienced the Japanese bombings. He says he saw the planes arriving with their bombs. »

The author then lets the reader see if this family will stay or notall in a context of rising fascism throughout the world…

The book is available in bookstores. Distribution throughout France.

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