Saigon, 1938. During a stopover in French Indochina, young Pierre meets Mông, a mysterious Vietnamese woman whose name means dream. A single night is enough to change the course of their lives forever. When they part, Pierre has no idea that he will spend the rest of his life searching for the memory of her.
A few months later, Europe is plunged into war. From occupied Belgium to the Nazi labour camps, and ultimately to Jawischowitz, near Auschwitz, Pierre is swept through the darkest years of the twentieth century. Faced with unimaginable brutality, impossible choices and the tragedies that shape his life, one image refuses to fade: Mông's smile.
Mông is an epic historical novel in which love, memory and hope become the most powerful weapons against war. Blending romance, adventure and remembrance, Claude Rappe has written a profoundly human story about those rare encounters that may last only a moment… yet leave their mark on a lifetime.
