So I impulsively borrowed this for the train ride home from Bordeaux but it turned out to have an unexpected connection to the city! Turns out that the trial (or trials) at the Center in this book were held there.

The Bettencourt Affair is about Liliane Schueller Bettencourt, the daughter of the founder of L’Oreal; Françoise, her daughter; and François-Marie Banier, an artist that grew close to Liliane and whom Françoise accused of swindling her mother out of millions. 

The truth is hard to discern. There is as definitely one point where Liliane wasn’t fully in control of her mental faculties, but it also seems like even before that, and during her lucid moments, she knew for sure what she was doing and that she didn’t care it would make her daughter angry. In fact, I think that Liliane’s advisors may have manipulated her even more.

And really, no one in this book is very likeable. Even Françoise, whom I initially sympathised with because she has a hard start due to Liliane’s inability to connect with her, ended up appearing like all she cared about was control over her mother and her money rather than actually having true concern (the part about how they stopped giving her dividends that they agreed she would be paid after a settlement was negotiated was particularly distasteful). 

And while the whole Bettencourt affair was riveting, what surprised me the most was how the founder of L’Oreal was anti-Semitic and might have supported Nazis and somehow, everyone just kept glossing over it. Like sure, there was some news in the press, but it seems like L’Oreal wasn’t affected at all by this, which I found surprising. 

Overall, this book was really interesting. I don’t really know much about L’Oreal or French politics (which is pretty intertwined with the Bettencourt case) so a lot of what the book covered was new to me. If the story of the Bettencourt interests you, definitely pick this book up!