A Book - A Place: Geneva

A scientist at CERN, the research centre that straddles the French and Swiss border, is murdered in grisly and mysterious circumstances, launching a race against the clock to prevent a much bigger crime. As in The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown constructs a pacy thriller that touches on history, theology and God. The book is Angels and Demons. As Dan Brown publishes the next installment of the adventure...

Best know for Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad set his spy thriller Under Western Eyes in Geneva, not only because it was a city in which he had lived, but because at that time, in the early 20th century, it was a hotbed of revolutionary Russian emigrés plotting the downfall of the monarchy and the imposition of communism. This episode takes you to the Geneva library where Vladimir Lenin studied a...

Voltaire is literally in the pantheon of France's greatest literary heroes. But in his lifetime, the unconventional writer-philosopher was shunned by his home country and lived much of his life in exile - the last two decades in - and importantly - just outside Geneva. And it is here that he wrote his most enduring work: Candide, the story of an ingenue who travels the world and suffers the worst...

Comic books, or graphic novels, are often associated with the Belgium of Tintin, the America of the superheros, or the Japan of manga and animé. But the art form was actually invented in Geneva, almost 200 years ago. In this episode we explore the life and legacy of Rodolph Toeppfer, whose work was championed by Goethe and is now acknowledged as the origin of la bande dessinée. abookaplace.com Par...

Part history podcast, part travel guide, ‘A Book – A Place: Geneva’ brings you the surprising places and stories that changed Geneva and the world. In this episode: the surprising history of comic books - not invented in New York, Brussels or Tokyo, but in Geneva - 200 years ago. Visit: abookaplace.com ( https://abookaplace.com ) Part book club, part travel guide, part history podcast, A Book - A...

Part book club, part travel guide, part history podcast, Season 1 of A Book - A Place: Geneva takes you on five literary adventures. Episode 1: Frankenstein: a monster is born on the shore of Lake Geneva The book:  Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus , by Mary Shelly, published in 1818 The place:  ‘ Frankie ’ a.k.a ‘The Creature of Doctor Frankenstein’ statue in Plainpalais, Geneva by KLAT, 20...

Everyone knows something about Frankenstein, the archetype horror movie monster. But what about the birth of the story, which is now seen as perhaps the first horror novel, the first work of what would become known as science fiction, and, for today’s readers, still one of the most thought provoking tales about artificial intelligence? As we’ll hear, Frankenstein was born, not in a mad scientist’s...

Part history podcast, part travel guide, always a great story. A Book - A Place: Geneva takes you to unexpected places in an often overlooked city that has a unique place in history. Frankenstein and comic books were born here. Revolutionaries plotted. An enlightenment superstar had good reason to have houses in and just outside Geneva. And science fiction fans became real scientists at the home o...

Part history podcast, part travel guide, ‘A Book – A Place: Geneva’ brings you the surprising places and stories that changed Geneva and the world. In this episode: we all know something about Frankenstein - but do you know the amazing story of its birth in Geneva? Visit: abookaplace.com Part book club, part travel guide, part history podcast, A Book - A Place: Geneva takes you to the places behin...

Part history podcast, part travel guide, ‘A Book – A Place: Geneva’ brings you the surprising places and stories that changed Geneva and the world. In this episode: the surprising history of comic books - not invented in New York, Brussels or Tokyo, but in Geneva - 200 years ago. Visit: abookaplace.com Part book club, part travel guide, part history podcast, A Book - A Place: Geneva takes you to t...