Paradise

This book was written six months before Herv� Guibert's death in December 1991 from an Aids-related illness. The narrative follows the adventures of the author and his 'companion', the beautiful, passionate and mysterious Jayne. She is a statuesque blonde, former swimming champion and model, who excels in the pursuit of pleasure. They wander to and from various romantic locations - Martinique, Zurich, Tahiti, Bora Bora, Mali - which all turn out to be insidiously dangerous and disease-ridden behind their picturesque travel-brochure appearances and their expensive, luxurious hotels. As the author's real life comes to the surface of the fictional fantasy, the narrative gradually takes on more sinister tones: Guibert and Jayne acquire the symptoms of a banal, persistent infection while they are in Mali ... Guibert's Aids symptoms develop and he undergoes a terrifying new kind of brain scan at a clinic in Washington DC ... and, finally, Jayne swims out to a jagged coral reef, never to return ...