Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Pushkin Press, and author Antoine Laurain for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

First published in 2012, this story-within-a-story tale was recently translated into English and republished. This seems to be Antoine Laurain’s style, as the previous book I read by him had a similar format. Set in 1986 and early 1987, The President’s Hat follows the impact of French President François Mitterrand’s hat making its way around France once it is lost by its owner.

Daniel Mercier is dining alone one night in a rather expensive brasserie when who should sit down at the table next to him but François Mitterrand. He doesn’t want to stare, but he does manage to overhear parts of the conversation. He’s thrilled to have a story to tell his wife when she returns from visiting her parents. Not wanting to miss a thing, Daniel nurses his dinner and coffee until Mitterand and his party depart. It’s only then that he notices the President has forgotten his hat ona shelf. On one hand, he knows he should turn it into the staff. On the other hand, it would be something great to have as a souvenir.

You can guess what he decides to do.

Once Daniel begins wearing the hat, strange things begin to happen. He is possessed of a confidence he has never shown before. This affects him in life in a positive way. On a train to Le Havre, he accidentally leaves the hat on a shelf above his seat. He spends most of the rest of the book on the fringes, trying to find his hat while the reader follows the path of the hat as it moves among various people.

I loved this tale of how a hat that may or may not have magical properties moves between people, changing their lives. It was uplifting and fun. The hat becomes the property of various people who are at a crossroads in their lives. A woman who finds it has the strength to leave her married boyfriend. A man in the throes of depression finds his spark reawakened. A conservative member of society has the world opened up to him, finding out that the past is not necessarily something to cling to.

The story-within-a-story format is also a lot of fun. It brings in characters whom I met at their point of interacting with the hat and then disappear again, although Laurain does a terrific job of weaving them a bit into the ongoing story. There’s also an epilogue that details what happened to them after having possessed the hat for a short time. At the same time, once the focus moves away from them, they do not appear unless there is a reason for them to.

Is the hat magical? Or are these simply people who are primed to make changes in their lives? It’s an interesting theory either way, and Laurain hints that there is something more there.

At just 208 pages again, this is more novella than novel. I found the story to be a fun one that made me smile, something we desperately need right now.