Read A Prince Without a Kingdom Online
Authors: Timothee de Fombelle
A Prince Without a Kingdom
AN ENCOUNTER IN THE SKY: VANGO AND ETHEL
1. THE CORPSE IN THE BLUE COMET
2. STORMY WEATHER ON THE TRACKS
11. “THIS NOTEBOOK BELONGS TO LAURA VIAGGI”
19. “WRITE TO TELL ME HE’S WELL”
20. THE SMOKING ROOM OF THE
HINDENBURG
AN ENCOUNTER BY THE SEA: WEEPING WILLOW
Italics denote real historical figures
BORIS PETROVITCH ANTONOV
murderous Soviet agent tasked with killing Vango
EMILIE ATLAS
girl who secretly prowls the rooftops of Paris; resistance name Marie; a.k.a. “the Cat”
LIEUTENANT AUGUSTIN
AVIGNON
Boulard’s ambitious second-in-command
ETHEL B. H.
Scottish heiress and orphan; in love with Vango; lives with her brother, Paul, at Everland Castle
PAUL B. H.
Ethel’s older brother; Scottish heir and orphan; RAF pilot who fights in the Spanish Civil War and for the French Resistance
DOCTOR BASILIO
doctor on the island of Salina; hopes to see Mademoiselle again
NINA BIENVENUE
cabaret singer who achieved fame at La Lune Rousse in Montmartre, Paris
SUPERINTENDENT AUGUSTE BOULARD
eminent police detective at the Quai des Orfèvres (Criminal Investigations, Police HQ, Paris)
MADAME MARIE-ANTOINETTE BOULARD
Boulard’s mother
CAESAR
mysterious resistance leader for the Paradise Network
GIOVANNI CAFARELLO
murderous pirate who left Salina for New York with a stolen fortune; a.k.a. Gio
DORGELES
Voloy Viktor’s right-hand man, and a thug
MADAME BLANCHE DUSSAC
concierge for the Paris apartment block where Boulard lives; friend of Marie-Antoinette Boulard
COMMANDER/DOKTOR HUGO ECKENER
commander of the
Graf Zeppelin;
friend of Vango; member of Project Violette
MOTHER ELISABETH
leader of the Abbey of La Blanche on the island of Noirmoutier, off the coast of western France
DOCTOR ESQUIROL
Max Grund’s personal doctor; member of Project Violette
CASIMIR FERMINI
proprietor of La Belle Étoile restaurant in Paris
MAX GRUND
chief representative of the Gestapo in German-occupied Paris
HEINRICH KUBIS
headwaiter of the
Graf Zeppelin
CAPTAIN ERNST LEHMANN
captain of the
Graf Zeppelin;
Hugo Eckener’s second-in-command
MADEMOISELLE
Vango’s childhood nurse; a.k.a.
Tioten’ka;
a.k.a. “the Bird-seller”
WERNER MANN
German World War I fighter pilot; member of Project Violette
BROTHER MARCO
cook at the invisible monastery on the island of Arkudah
MARY
housekeeper at Everland Castle; guardian of Ethel and Paul
INSPECTOR BAPTISTE MOUCHET
assistant to the superintendent at the Quai des Orfèvres (Criminal Investigations, Police HQ, Paris)
NICHOLAS
son of Peter, the gardener at Everland Castle; Ethel’s ally
ANDREI IVANOVITCH
OULANOV
violin player from Moscow studying in Paris; blackmailed into spying for Boris Petrovitch Antonov
IVAN IVANOVITCH OULANOV
father of Andrei; lives in Moscow
KONSTANTIN & ZOYA IVANOVITCH
OULANOV
younger siblings of Andrei; they live in Moscow
JOSEPH JACQUES
PUPPET
former soldier turned boxer from the Ivory Coast; now a barber based in Monaco; member of Project Violette; a.k.a. J. J. Puppet
SIMON
the bell ringer at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris
JOSEPH STALIN
despotic ruler of the Soviet Union
SVETLANA STALIN
eight-year-old daughter of Stalin; a.k.a. Setanka; a.k.a. Setanotchka
STELLA
a girl from Chakva
GIUSEPPINA TROISI
Pippo Troisi’s abandoned wife; a.k.a. Pina
PIPPO TROISI
once a farmer from the island of Salina; now an “asylum seeker from marriage” at the invisible monastery on the island of Arkudah
VANGO
washed up on the island of Salina as a child; now a young man searching for his identity; a.k.a. Evangelisto; a.k.a. “the Bird”
BARTOLOMEO VIAGGI
pirate from the island of Salina; killed by Giovanni Cafarello
LAURA VIAGGI
daughter of the late Bartolomeo Viaggi; from the island of Salina
VOLOY VIKTOR
nefarious arms dealer; also goes by many other names, including Madame Victoria
VLAD THE VULTURE
Soviet agent; rival of Boris Petrovitch Antonov
WEEPING WILLOW
mysterious, sickly figure who is hidden away in a valley in the Caucasus Mountains
PADRE ZEFIRO
leader of the invisible monastery of Arkudah; mentor of Vango; member of Project Violette
1918. At the age of three, Vango is washed up
on a beach in the Aeolian Islands in Sicily, with Mademoiselle, his nurse, who claims to know nothing about their past. He grows up on the island of Salina, sheltered from the world, among the birds and climbing the cliffs.
At the age of ten, he discovers the invisible monastery, which Padre Zefiro founded in order to protect a few dozen monks from the mafias that were after them. Vango is accepted by the community, and lives between his island and the monastery. But, four years later, when he announces to Zefiro that he wants to become a monk, the padre sends him away to find out about the world before making a final commitment.
So Vango spends the year of 1929 as a crew member of the
Graf Zeppelin
airship, by the side of Commander Hugo Eckener. On board he meets an orphan called Ethel, who is traveling with her brother. But Vango is being pursued by unknown forces who want him dead, and three weeks after meeting Ethel, he is forced to leave her.
A few years later, just as he is about to become a priest at the foot of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Vango is accused of a crime he hasn’t committed. The senseless witch hunt continues, and Superintendent Boulard and his men join the ranks of those already pursuing him. From now on, Vango leads the life of a fugitive across Europe, as he tries to discover why such hatred follows him.
Padre Zefiro has now left his monastery and is fighting against the arms dealer Voloy Viktor in order to keep the promise he made to three friends, twenty years earlier, in the trenches of Verdun.
In the middle of this whirlwind, Vango finally learns about his dramatic arrival in Sicily as a child: offshore from the islands, his parents were killed in their boat by three men, led by one Cafarello. Vango and his nurse escaped. Cafarello betrayed his co-pirates, sunk the boat, and disappeared with the lion’s share of the mysterious treasure that was on board.
Vango sets off again into the unknown to find Cafarello and uncover the great secret of his life.
