A Hundred Suns by Karin Tanabe is an historical novel set in Paris and French Indochina (Vietnam) during the 1930’s. It is a fascinating look into the history and colonization of this region, focusing on the Michelin rubber plantations and the communist uprising.

In the expat world of glitz, glamour and wealth the foreigners live like kings and the locals are slaves. There is an undercurrent of violence and danger and everyone is keeping secrets. Everyone has something to achieve, and something to hide.

All the characters, but particularly the two female protagonists, are masterfully created and all so relatable in their suffering, desires, dreams and goals. They are all complex people with intricate past lives that determine their current actions and you easily sympathise with them all.

The descriptions of the country are beautifully painted, and you cannot help but conjure up images of the magnificence of the surroundings these characters find themselves in. The opulence is desirable yet hideous. The buildings are magnificent but alien and the countryside is breathtaking, but filled with poverty.

This is a novel filled with despair that expertly crafts together the themes illuminating slavery, political divides, loyalty and numerous other social issues.

I loved it! Definite recommended reading!

#netgalley #ahundredsuns #karintanabe #stmartinspress

Loved this book. . This was a really interesting look at a historical time that is not often covered. I learned a lot! An all around great read.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Compelling, and beautiful. Set in the 1930s, we follow two women that find themselves in Vietnam. Coming from less than meager means, they find themselves in the middle of riches, lies, and secret. It was initially a slow start for me, but I'm glad I stuck with it.

In the 1930's Indochine becomes the new home for a young family, part of the Michelin empire, as we follow their experiences and adjustments whilst slowly becoming aware of a uniquely original plan to destroy them. The story unfolds slowly between two POVs and at the beginning things seem ideal for the loving couple and their beautiful daughter Lucie. This is a story that embraces the complexity of human emotions, life experiences and moral dilemmas. Through some close encounters with disaster as the tension builds and the evil plotting becomes evident a happy ending seems impossible. I cannot spoil it for others, but I was relieved at conclusion.

Net Galley Advanced Reader Copy

In the 1930's, Jessie and her husband Victor, travel from Paris to Indochina. Victor, a Michelin, has been sent to oversee their rubber plantations. Jessie meets Marcelle, a woman who instantly befriends Jessie. Behind the scenes, Marcelle is working to oust the Michelin's, and transform the nation to communism.

The book was an interesting and intriguing read. Both the setting and the characters were exotic and fascinating. Jessie's back story was unraveled in pieces, providing depth to her character as the book progressed. I highly enjoyed this book, and look forward to reading more from this author.

A sprawling novel set in Indochina at the height of the French presence, there is much to recommend in this book. The descriptions of the lives of the rich French and the equally rich natives are evocative and fascinating. The beautiful scenery and the landscapes are depicted with clarity and one can imagine Indochina in the 1930’s. However, the story line is contrived and takes a long time to unfold. The main character is a relative of the powerful Michelin family whose rubber plantations dominate the economy. He emigrates to manage the holdings with his American wife and daughter. Everyone harbors a secret life and the plot is filled with intrigue, sex, alcohol and drugs. The author neatly ends the novel with good overcoming evil but it fails to convince a discerning reader of its outcome.

Loved this book. It's a historical novel about the Michelin rubber plants in Indochina. When I read historical fiction I never start googling about the era or topic until I finish the book and then it's the first thing I do. I'm always anxious to see whether it's truly historical with fiction to enhance the story or if it is fiction in a historical setting. For what it is worth, I believe this is the latter although as you can that didn't impact my rating! The book is a study of the times and of race but from a different perspective than other novels. It's a great time piece, informative and filled with intrigue. An all around great read.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an early release in exchange for an honest and fair review.

A Hundred Suns is a psychological thriller set in Indochine in the 1930s. I thoroughly enjoyed the glimpse into life in Hanoi during that era. With a fast moving plot, this book should appeal to a wide audience. The way that the ending mirrors the beginning was interesting and had me wondering what would happen next.

A thoroughly enjoyable book that may be historical fiction, but also has suspense, intrigue and double crossing strong female characters who are worthy opponents. I was not particularly familiar with the French colonization of Vietnam prior to its independence and cannot verify the accuracy. All of the characters are fictional per the author’s own admission although Michelin is very much a corporation based in France and the founders are as named in the book. In the 1920s and 1930s, Michelin operated large rubber plantations in Vietnam. Conditions at these plantations led to the famous labour movement Phu Rieng Do. This event is the center of the book.

Victor and Jessie leave France for Vietnam to get an eyes on view of the rubber plantations and employee conditions. At least that is what Jessie convinces Victor is the reason. Victor is an overlooked Michelin descendant through this mother. He will grasp at anything to improve his position in the company. Jessie becomes an unwitting accomplice in Victor’s activities which brings her to the attention of Marcelle deFabry and Khoi Nguyen. It was common for wealthy Vietnamese families to send their male adult children to France for schooling. Many of these young men were fed up with the French control of Vietnam and with the help of French students spread the word that communism was the way to bring independence to Vietnam.

The reason for Jessie’s behavior in Vietnam is somewhat obvious. Marcelle is deliciously devious. Victor is repulsive given his need for power and Khoi is charming and conflicted. Thank you netgalley.com to read this well crafted story.

Wow. My first book by this author and definitely not my last.
A great historical fiction book that transported you to the past, with characters that you fall in love with

A hundred Suns
It's 1933 and we're in Indochine, the French colony that is now Vietnam. Victor and Jessie Michelin Lesage along with daughter Lucie have come to Hanoi to become caretakers of the family's rubber plantations. It is a world of glamour, luxurious homes set in sumptuous surroundings Quite different from that of the natives, who are there to serve the wealthy. But there is an undercurrent beneath the affluent society, not just a restlessness, but something more devious, more dangerous. As Jessie befriends Marcelle de Fabry it is soon apparent to her not all is quite right. Yet Jessie has her own demons, secrets she guards and secrets she is running away from while Marcelle is steeped in her own ambitions, her own devious selfishness.

Ms. Tanabe has painted a picture in words, words that take you back to another place in time. This book and the picture it paints is stunning, there is no other way to describe it. She is a gifted writer, her research is impeccable her story telling draws you in from page one. As you read this novel you feel as if you are right there, you can easily visualize the scenes, the descriptions, you too are aware of the scents that wrap themselves around the characters. As you read along, it is easy to see how the history of Indochina became the catalyst for the war in Vietnam.

My thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a very fascinating read that had a few unforeseen twists, it is an excellent end of summer read. It is a historical fiction book that takes place in Vietnam during the 1930s, which is still colonized by France at the time. The book that I would compare it to is “Tangerine” but “A Hundred Suns” is not as slow paced as “Tangerine” and the characters definitely captivate you more. I think the book could have been a bit more forthcoming on workers rights but they did somewhat address it. I like that this historical novel covered a topic outside of WWII as too many books in that genre do. It was fascinating to learn about a topic I did not know about and a location (Vietnam) that is rarely covered.

This is the first book by Karin Tanabe that I have read and will be reading more of her works. A Hundred Suns is a historical fiction based in Indochina in the early 1930's and the Michelin family plantations there. Karin Tanabe has cast the main characters in such a way that has you eager to keep reading to find out what is going to happen next.

I lost interest in this book midway through and couldn't finish reading it. The characters were hard to get into and I didn't feel invested in the story or it's setting.

I received a complimentary copy of A Hundred Suns from NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
This novel was a delicious tale of deception and revenge, masked by friendship and illness. Unexpected twists throughout, which are all revealed in the last chapters. Very well written concerning an obscure piece of history!
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

I was already interested A Hundred Suns by Karin Tanabe after reading her wonderful previous novel, The Gilded Years. In A Hundred Suns, American Jessie Holland Lasage moves to Vietnam, or French Indochina as it was then known, along with her French husband Victor Michelin Lasage and their adorable daughter Lucie. Victor is coming over to supervise the Michelin rubber plantations, because his clever wife spotted an opportunity for a Michelin cousin to prove himself in the distant colony, and return in a few years to a higher post in the inner circle back in France.

At least, that's the idea. As the story progresses, and Jessie meets more of the expat circle, everyone seems to have complicated motives for moving abroad. At first, her new friend Marcelle seems like another bored expat wife, but she has a Vietnamese boyfriend and ties to communist rebels. Jessie's husband may be mixed up in the Michelin family's darker side, cruelly exploiting local workers.

Jessie has been pretty much the master of controlling her narrative through careful omission and stretches of the truth. She's reinvented herself several times. Victor gives her a watch with an orange on it, because for him, the surname Holland means William of Orange, and not backwoods poverty like it does for Jessie. She is almost an unreliable narrator, since she's keeping so many secrets, and having such strange memory lapses.

Each character here has their own complex motivations and goals. The author shows how each person is affected by their past experiences, and each person thinks they're doing what must be done.  So it's easy for readers to sympathize with more than one character, even when they're in opposition to each other.

This is a compelling ensemble novel with a satisfying but realistic conclusion.

This is one of those books that, if you have to put it down, you can't wait to return to it. The historical detail evoked by the author is amazing--she makes all of the individual characters compelling, both the wealthy colonial tycoons and the ordinary people just trying to survive amid a world that cannot go on much longer before major changes come.

The female narrators are engaged in a psychological drama, both not understanding one another enough, and in other ways all too well. I find myself thinking about the characters even several days after finishing the book.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the ARC!

You feel right away in this country and the mystery of disappearance of family! Don't like to tell the story but It's a very good history story and you really are in with these believable characters. You have all sorts of ingredients to make up this interesting story! Don't start this book unless you finish cause them you don't find out everything! Net Gallery thank you! This takes place in Viet Nam a place a lot of It's know nothing about which you will learn in this book!!

This book was another win by Karin Tanabe. Not only did I thoroughly enjoy her previous works, but this story was a real page turner. Set in Vietnam (Indochina) during the early 1930s, we follow Jessie and Marcella as they navigate the Michelin rubber plantations and Communist uprisings of the French colonial time period. I thought this story was fast-paced and the plot was fantastic. I highly recommend!

#AHundredSuns #NetGalley
A Hundred Suns, a novel by Karin Tanabe, gets you caught up in the story immediately. It’s 1933, we’re in Indochine (Hanoi). Jessie is at the train station and her husband Victor and Daughter Lucie disappear.! Or were they ever there in the first place!
There is a conflict between the natives and the French. Michelin owns two rubber plantations nearby. The Indochine natives they employ are treated badly and communists are infiltrating, breeding hate and working toward a revolt.
Wealthy French and wealthy natives live a life of partying with their big houses, country clubs and also jealousy, envy and opium!
The chapters are shared by two women who have become very good friends (or so it seems). Jessie is an American who met and married Victor Michelin Lesage in France but has convinced him to take charge of the family business here to hide her secrets. Her new friend Marcelle may not be such a good friend..
This is a fast paced story with good characterization and a lot of intrigue.