Thursday, April 15, 2021

Book Review - A Sunday in Ville-d'Avray; Dominique Barberis

 

TITLE/AUTHORA Sunday in Ville-d'Avray; Dominique Barberis

PUBLISHER: Other Press

YEAR PUBLISHED: 2021

GENRE: Fiction / Literary /Translated

FORMAT:  LENGTH: 132 pp

SOURCE: ARC (sent by publisher)

SETTING(s):  France (translated from the French by John Cullen)


ONE SENTENCE SUMMARY:  A brief but enjoyable escape to France in this story about sisters with secrets.

BRIEF REVIEW:   Two sisters who were very close when young, now live a distance away.  Our unnamed narrator sister and her partner Luc live in Paris, while the other sister, Claire Marie, lives in a quiet suburb and is married to a doctor and also has a daughter.  Since Luc does not care for Claire Marie, he stays behind on the Sunday the narrator makes the trip.  Already in a melancholy mood when she travels to her sisters place, oddly, Sunday had always been a day their mother hated when they were young as well.  Over the course of their Sunday visit these middle-aged sisters reveal things they had never shared before.

I sat down with this brief novella and a hot cup of tea on a dreary spring afternoon and found it to be a rewarding escape that made me think.  There was a quiet, intimate, yet suspenseful and atmospheric feel to the writing.  By the end of this brief novel, I felt like I knew what made each sister tick but, did I? Can you always tell the difference between fact and fiction and can we always trust our memories? 

RATING:  4/5 stars

MEMORABLE QUOTES:  "WHO REALLY KNOWS US? We say so few things, and we lie about almost everything.  Who knows the truth?  Had my sister really told me the truth? Who can know it? Who'll remember us? With the passage of time, our hearts will become dark and dusty....."

7 comments:

  1. Oh this sounds lovely and a bit spooky. I love secrets and I've been loving shorter books lately that I can dip into and then be done. Definitely adding to my list.

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  2. Sounds wonderful! I'll keep an eye out for this one.

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  3. Sisters and secrets...sounds like a good one. :)

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  4. A great escape sounds perfect for a dreary weather. Glad you enjoyed it!

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  5. A good example of a book you found through Other Press!

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  6. I like the idea of spending an afternoon with three sisters as they navigate their relationship and share secrets. Your description makes it sound like what I call a "gentle read," which is satisfying.

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