Boston

Boston is the American city that becomes the new home of Ariel de Champlain after World War II. Following the deportation and death of his mother, Rachel de Champlain, and the death of his father, Marc de Champlain, in a prisoner of war camp, representatives from the Œuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OSE) arrive at Le Jardin to inform Vianne Mauriac that Ari has relatives living in Boston. The OSE men, Nathaniel Lerner and Phillipe Horowitz, explain that Ari's mother's first cousin, who already has an eleven-year-old daughter and a six-year-old son, is prepared to take him in and raise him as her own. This cousin's family in Boston represents the only surviving branch of Ari's family, and the OSE insists that he must be returned to his people to be raised within the Jewish faith and community, a decision that Vianne, despite her deep love for the boy, ultimately accepts as the right thing for him. The relocation to Boston is presented as a necessary but heartbreaking severance; Vianne is told that Ari will need to forget her to start his new life, and she is not permitted to maintain contact. The novel's present-day epilogue reveals that Ari, now an adult named Ariel de Champlain, has indeed grown up in Boston, becoming a successful man who has spent years searching for Vianne and Sophie. He attends the passeurs' reunion in Paris, where he reunites with Vianne, carrying the framed photograph of his biological mother, Rachel, that Vianne had placed in his bag when he left. He tells Vianne that he never forgot her or Sophie, despite being told to, and that he slept with Sophie's stuffed animal, Bébé, for years. Boston thus functions as the geographical and cultural destination that both saves Ari's life and permanently separates him from the family that raised him during the war, a separation that is only partially healed decades later.