Produktdetaljer
Biographical note
AGNÈS DESARTHE was born in Paris in 1966 and has written many books for children and teenagers, as well as adult fiction. She won the Prix du Livre Inter in 1996 for Un Secret Sans Importance and has had three previous novels translated into English: Five Photos of My Wife, which was short-listed for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the Jewish Quarterly Fiction Prize, Good Intentions and Chez Moi (Portobello, 2008).The Foundling has enough plot to count as a page-turner, yet it still surprises with occasional profundities... Desarthe's portrayal of a young woman devastated by grief is potent... translator Adriana Hunter's rendering of the prose is flawless
- Arifa Akbar, Independent
A superb study of grief that is both personal and national; a heartbreaking twist reveals the unspoken origin of Jerome's first name in a country full of buried tragedies. Brilliant and devastating
- Kate Saunders, The Times
Desarthe's novel asks how adults and children alike survive emotional pain - through forgetting or remembering? A dream-like book
- Adrian Turpin, Financial Times
An intriguing and charming novel, caught somewhere between real life and waking dream. Bewitching
Elle
This sensitively translated novel is an insightful portrayal of emotional reawakening... incisive, lyrical and gently humorous
- Natasha Blumenthal, Jewish Quarterly
A complex story of how random events can bring powerful change into a seemingly settled life, launching it in unexpected new directions... the book reads elegantly and seamlessly... deserves to be successful
- Tom Cunliffe, A Common Reader blog
Desarthe's quirky French bestseller is conceived in hazy, impressionistic prose that occasionally feels like one is reading through a fine mist, but it captures the ennui of the featureless country town
- Alfred Hickling, Guardian
One of the marvels of the literary season
Version Femina
At the same time sombre and luminous, disturbing and soothing, Desarthe's latest novel surprises and enchants. A magnificent tale
Page
In the moments when Jerome claws into the soil with his bare hands, digging for his identity, you can understand The Foundling's success in France
- Ben Felsenburg, Metro
Desarthe charms with her delicate dissection of the human heart
- Emma Hagestadt, Independent