Set in early-18th-century France, Thomas: A Secret Life is the imagined life of Thomas Pichon. We first meet Thomas as a twelve-year old in the small town of Vire, Normandy. Precociously sensuous by nature, Thomas is inclined to poetry and religious/erotic imaginings. A series of adolescent adventures provide striking background to his character. Rejecting parental insistence that he become a priest, Thomas steals away to Paris in the middle of the night. There, nearly broke, Thomas works as a lowly office clerk, joins the ranks of aspiring French writers and makes extra money serving as a...

Getting what he wants turns Thomas's world upside down, forcing him to start over - again. Like the streets of his 18th-century Paris home, Thomas Pichon's life is full of twists and turns. Despite winning his wife's forgiveness for an extramarital affair, Thomas and his lover, Helene, are caught a second time, and decide that it's time for new beginnings - in London. As a writer, Thomas tries to make literary sense of the chaos of the life and language of a city teeming with excitement and danger. Helene finds her own way out of the maze."

Thomas Pichon seems forever at a crossroads, often choosing the path of least resistance, or the most tempting. In this, the third Thomas Pichon novel, his life remains more complicated than he wishes. He encounters highwaymen on a country road, succumbs to a tempting tryst in the spa town of Bath, squanders a new love in London and longs for the higher social station he once enjoyed. Returning to Paris, Thomas's work life initially stalls, but a new lover offers help. He is given the best position he has ever had, one that requires him to go overseas. The crossing is a voyage neither he nor...