Patrick Modiano’s novel, Dora Bruder Immobilised indoors has given me time to indulge in Literary E-Tourism. I started reading Patrick Modiano’s novel from April 1997, Dora Bruder this morning and immediately his opening lines provide sufficient detail to see if he is using real facts and places. He opens with a brief newspaper item from 31 st December 1941; it was the period when Marshal Pétain was Chief of State in France. The first literary tourism question then is, can a copy of that evening newspaper, Paris-soir be found? I know that Gallica, which gives on-line access to scanned documents from the French National Library, the {BnF, will probably hold the edition mentioned in the novel. Actually, it was with genuine surprise and something of that same thrill of discovery you feel when you arrive at the exact spot mentioned in a novel that I found this: There is the missing persons message for Dora Bruder on page 3 as Modiano’s novel says! Take a look at the front page to
ISSN 2753-7803
