FICTION

(Le Rouergue)

A coastal industrial zone in Normandy is the setting for the rekindling of a love triangle from the past. The arrogant and cynical Samuel is the owner of a nightclub; the lonely 40- something Sandra is his lover; and Rodolphe is the latter’s ex-husband and the former’s estranged friend. Rodolphe comes across as both threatened and threatening, because once again the disappearance of his and Sandra’s daughter fifteen years previously has featured in a television programme, and also because this now successful man, who is an adviser to a high-profile politician, has received a disturbing anonymous letter. Sandra is an intense and troubled woman who is at the centre of an intrigue involving the death of her daughter. Is she the victim or the guilty party, and if so of what?

The author skilfully dissects her characters, revealing their ambiguities, their desires and their darker recesses in this very tense novel, written in a taut cinematic style, which is a constant interplay of light and shadow.