Book description
Set in New Orleans, this is a novel about a love triangle. Married
mother, Emma Miller, is bored with her husband, her job and her life so
she begins a passionate, often violent, affair with Pascal Toussaint, a
sadist with whom she becomes obsessed. Pascal, in the meantime, is
fixated on a young novice called Claire D'anjou. Claire seems rather
cold, is devout to an extreme, and is prone to visions. Pascal's father
describes her as 'not satisfied with being only mortal'. Emma endures
the same sort of self-effacement in her relationship with Paul as Claire
does in her struggle towards religious purity. This is all set against
the backdrop of a city overrun by rats and awash with a mysterious
plague. Valerie Martin is the author of two collections of short
fiction and six novels, including Italian Fever, The Great Divorce and
Mary Reilly [the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde story, from the viewpoint of a
housemaid, which was filmed with Julia Roberts and John Malkovich). She
lives in upstate New York.
