پیوند: داستان واقعی جذاب یک دیپلمات جاسوس و ستاره اپرای چینی

“Tragic, operatic, touching, and hilarious . . . Liaison is about romantic love in its purest, craziest form—proof anew that the greatest erogenous zone is the mind.”—Shana Alexander The true story that inspired David Hwang's play “M Butterfly”, about a French diplomat, Bernard Boursicot, posted to Peking, who fell in love with a seductive opera singer, named Shi Pei Pu, apparently unaware that Pei Pu was a man. Their liaison "produced" a son, and led them into espionage and finally to gaol in France. Joyce Wadler spent four years researching the story, and finally persuaded Boursicot to break his silence and explain his side of the story. NOTE: This edition does not include photos. It was a scandal that provoked shock and disbelief - and inspired a long-running Broadway play. But the convicted spy at the center of the storm never told his side of the story...until now. When Bernard Boursicot, an innocent and charming twenty-year-old yearning for adventure and romance, was posted to the French embassy in Beijing, he met and soon fell in love with a mysterious, seductive opera singer named Shi Pei Pu. Over the course of the next eighteen years, the two lived out a passionate and dangerous liaison that produced a son, drew them into espionage, and ultimately landed them both in a French prison. The whole time, Boursicot was unaware that Pei Pu, the love of his life and his longtime sexual partner, was a man. How could this happen? How could he not know? These questions intrigued the world, making Boursicot the subject of incredulity and ridicule, and ultimately inspired an immensely popular Broadway hit, M Butterfly. But the speculation could not begin to rival the astonishing real story. To uncover the facts behind this sensational case, journalist Joyce Wadler spent three years researching court documents and psychiatrists' files, interviewing relatives, friends, and co-workers of the pair, including a former prime minister of France. Most important of all, she persuaded Boursicot, who had refused to discuss his story since his arrest, to break his silence. For the first time Ms. Wadler explains - in explicit detail - exactly how the tantalizing creature described in international headlines as "the Chinese Mata Hari" was able to deceive Boursicot while playing the greatest role of her...his?...life. Even richer and more compelling than the fiction it inspired, Liaison is a true story of the inseparability of love and illusion. The story behind the Broadway play M. Butterfly chronicles the strange love affair between a French diplomat in Beijing and a mysterious opera singer, a liaison in which the Frenchman is unaware that his lover is a man. 30,000 first printing. $30,000 ad/promo. **“Tragic, operatic, touching, and hilarious . . . __Liaison__ is about romantic love in its purest, craziest form—proof anew that the greatest erogenous zone is the mind.”—Shana Alexander** Bernard Boursicot was posted to the French embassy in Beijing where he met and fell in love with a seductive opera star, unaware that this love of his life was a man.