Secrets and lies linger in the very walls of the solid old Normandy house where Therese and Leonie, French and English cousins, grow up after the war. Intrigued by adults' guilty silences and the broken shrine they find in the woods, the girls weave their own fantasies, unwittingly revealing the village's buried shame, a shame that will haunt them both for the rest of their lives.
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize Secrets and lies linger in the very walls of the solid old Normandy house where Therese and Leonie, French and English cousins, grow up after the war. Intrigued by adults' guilty silences and the broken shrine they find in the woods, the girls weave their own fantasies, unwittingly revealing the village's buried shame, a shame that will haunt them both for the rest of their lives.
An intense piece of writing, in which the transfigured mundane world of recipes, parental prohibitions and almost ritualised gossip is posed against official purity and religiosity, and shown to be superior. - TLS
Subtle and persuasive - COSMOPOLITAN
A brave and richly imagined novel, full of thrilling set pieces. The new prestige it seems likely to earn for one of our best writers is long overdue. - GUARDIAN
Remarkable and beautifully written - INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
Author
About Michele Roberts
Michele Roberts is the author of eleven highly-acclaimed novels as well as short stories and poetry, most recently collected in All the Selves I Was. Half-English and half-French, she lives in London and Mayenne, France.
.jpg)
