A Hundred Million Years and a Day

A HUNDRED MILLION YEARS AND A DAY (Cent millions d'années et un jour) (2019; translated into English by Sam Taylor, 2020) is the second novel and the first one to appear in English translation by former French filmmaker turned writer, Jean-Baptiste Andrea (b. 1971). Shortlisted for the Grand Prix de L'académie Française and the Grand Prix des Bloguers Littérairies in 2019 and the Prix Joseph Kessel in 2020 and awarded the 2020 Prix des lecteurs lycéens de l’Éscale du livres, A HUNDRED MILLION YEARS AND A DAY is a riveting account of a race against time atop a glacier to fulfill a lifetime’s passion—and to survive.Since the age of six Stan has been fascinated by fossils, especially after discovering his first trilobite in 1908. It is an enthrallment which leads him to becoming a paleontologist “full of illusions” at the university at Gare de Lyon. In 1954 Stan finds himself on the brink of his lifetime’s obsession, “the Holy Grail for any museum director or university vice chancellor,” finding and unveiling a complete skeleton of a “dragon” hidden away, untouched and “well protected,” in a “cave… at the base of a glacier.” Armed with documents which give a plausible description of the cave’s location but with no guarantee there is actually a dinosaur fossil still there if ever there was one, Stan needs help. He is no mountaineer, he’s “not fit or athletic” and suffers from vertigo. He hires two assistants, a former student and long-time friend, Umberto, “a born mountaineer” and Peter, a friend of Umberto’s who has “done some climbing in his youth,” as well as a veteran guide who has climbed mountains by the score, Gio. Together they set off to an unnamed, no-man’s land bordering France and Italy on what might be a grand adventure and discovery of a lifetime or trial and tragedy.Andrea’s novel is a captivating and vivid reading experience from beginning to end. Set after the 1879 discovery of a Brontosaurus (controversial because no head was discovered and thus many paleontologists claiming it was not a new species which had been discovered), the novel is narrated in first person by Stan in concise and sharp language—as sharp as the cold glacier winds, the snow and the ice, and the perilous rock rubble upon which the men tread. With short chapters, A HUNDRED MILLION YEARS AND A DAY is a novel both quickly devoured and filled with images which engulf the senses and one’s imagination.Throughout the novel as the men endure one challenge after another climbing the glacier, a bond—not without its imperfections—forms among them. It is a universal experience both realistic and very human brought vividly to life by the author. Umberto and Peter, in particular, become one with Stan’s ambition and dream.Also interspersed all through the chronicle are flashbacks to Stan’s past, especially his childhood, and his experiences with a loving mother who dies young and a father, the “Commander,” who is cold, incapable of loving (or at least of showing it), and demanding. The narrator’s memories are remarkably well recounted. They break up the story of the ascent skyward at appropriate moments and give the reader a sense of who Stan really is—his lifetime of sadness, his inhibitions with others, his professional ambitions as an adult, and as one of the other characters describes him, “an angel half the time, a bastard the rest of the time, and the best paleontologist.”It is not an overstatement to say A HUNDRED MILLION YEARS AND A DAY is a perfectly formed novel and brilliant piece of writing.As time begins to run short for the men on the glacier, as new obstacles are thrown in their way, as September temperatures fall and snow threatens their return and their very lives, the suspense Jean-Baptiste Andrea builds in the story is incredible. Readers are left helplessly turning pages to discover whether Stan’s dream discovery exists, can be reached, or if he will fall short and the men forced to return home and wait another year before making another attempt—or worse.No fantasy adventure this, the conclusion of A HUNDRED MILLION YEARS AND A DAY, as with the novel as a whole, has a beautifully authentic feeling to it and as such, is most gratifying.

This was an excellent book! We follow a man obsessed with finding a dragon in a cave,through the turmoiled childhood to where he ended up in the end.We meet his friends and family.Some we like. Hugh Weller-Poley was a very good narrator. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

This was a beautiful tale that I fell in love with at the opening pages. Stan's quest captured my imagination and Andrea's ability to weave a magical story out of difficulty and strife amazed me throughout. There were so many stunning (and deceptively simple) insights that resonated on multiple levels with me; my life bears no resemblance to Stan's, but I felt like I had found a kindred spirit nevertheless because the internal journey he takes throughout the course of the novel (from childhood to adulthood in flashbacks, as well as in the contemporary storyline) is so universal. The emotional range of this (again deceptively) short book was incredible; it stands as a testament to Andrea's writing (and the the translation's integrity) and was a large part of why I found the story so compelling.The other part, of course, was the physical journey itself. With stunning descriptions of the vistas and hardships endured during the climb, Andrea brought me utterly into the world of glacial ice and possibility that Stan's quest for the "dragon" entailed. I've never felt the call of exploration or mountains before, never felt compelled to see or identify or do something no one has ever done or seen or found. It's not who I am. But with language as pure as the mountain air and glacial ice it describes, Andrea made me want it. It was pure magic and I was captivated throughout.Incidentally, I don't know what it is about Gallic Books and their translations, but I have been enraptured by every single title I've read... I am continually amazed at the ability of their authors to write the stories they do and then at that of their translators to take the idiomatic original language and turn it into an equally lyrical English read - all the more so because the stories always hinge on the magic of description and emotion...Thank you so much to the publisher and Meryl Zegarek Public Relations for my obligation-free review copy of this incredible tale!

A beautiful book, I read it in one sitting , total escapism. It transports the reader to a time and place, wonderfully written, I loved it and didnt want it to end.

A sad tale that is well written but to no real purpose and very gloomy