Book description
After every war there are stories that are locked away like bluebottles
in drawers and kept silent. But sometimes the past can return: in the
smell of carbolic soap, in whispers darting through a village after
mass, in the colour of an undelivered letter.
Jeanne Nerin and Marie-Angà ¨le Baudry grow up, side by side yet apart,
in the village of Ste Madeleine. Marie-Angà ¨le is the daughter of the
grocer, inflated with ideas of her own piety and rightful place in
society. Jeanne's mother washes clothes for a living. She used to be a
Jew until this became too dangerous. Jeanne does not think twice about
grasping the slender chances life throws at her. Marie-Angà ¨le does
not grasp; she aspires to a future of comfort and influence.
When war falls out of the sky, along with it tumbles a new, grown-up
world. The village must think on its feet, play its part in a game for
which no one knows the rules. Not even the dubious hero with 'business
contacts' who sweeps Marie-Angà ¨le off her feet. Not even the
reclusive artist living alone with his sensual, red canvases. In these
uncertain times, the enemy may be hiding in your garden shed and the
truth is all too easily buried under a pyramid of recriminations.
Michà ¨le Roberts's new novel is a mesmerising exploration of guilt,
faith, desire and judgment, bringing to life a people at war in a way
that is at once lyrical and shocking. Her fictions are high-risk,
unconventional ... The otherwise cautious reader is taken almost without
realising it into dangerous and exhilarating territory Michà ¨le
Roberts is the author of twelve highly acclaimed novels, including
The Looking Glass
and Daughters of the House,
which won the WHSmith Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Booker
Prize. Her memoir Paper Houses
was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. She has also published poetry and
short stories, most recently collected in Mud: Stories of Sex and Love
. Half-English and half-French, Michà ¨le Roberts lives in London and
in the Mayenne, France. She is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at
the University of East Anglia, a Fellow of the Royal Society of
Literature and a Chevalier de l Ordre des Arts et Lettres.
