Honor to the Fortunate
Original title: Honneur aux heureux
Synopsis
A thrilling family saga that gracefully weaves together history, personal history and fiction.
On the trail of a great-uncle with a shady past, a novelist delves into the Second World War. Her research leads her to question her family, especially her mother. Investigating this man, she also unravels the myth of her family — those fortunate ones to whom honor belongs: a sprawling family with its roots in the grand house of Les Chênes. There, they love to laugh and talk loudly. The family’s shining pride leaves no room for grey areas.
France Cavalié keeps returning to this place full of memories, torn between dreams and nightmares. With her enlightened pen and words, she opens doors and windows, freeing the ghosts that still haunt her and her family. To face the unacceptable, she turns to fiction, telling the story of a resilient dancer who overcomes shame and ignominy.
A novel about a big family in all senses of the term where the thrill of childhood mingles with irreparable tragedy, Honneur aux heureux demonstrates with astonishing accuracy the need for and the power of words.
A colorful portrait of a captivating yet flawed bourgeois family unfolds behind the scenes, where etiquette governs relationships and the fortunate are honored. As France Cavalié allows the masks of her family members to fall, a central question emerges: what do we inherit, and are we the heirs to past mistakes? With remarkable grace, her writing captures fleeting moments in time, those little things such as a certain light in the evening that surround a mother’s words, using a language that is sensitive, modest, and strikingly vivid. Mindful and curious about the world, Cavalié never writes in accusation; instead, Honneur aux heureux becomes a liberating exploration of truth in all its imperfections, a sincere and lively narrative that fully comes into its own as literature under her pen.
Praise about his previous books:
About La Fille entre deux chaises (Stéphane Million, 2013) :
“France Cavalié is like everyone else, she does not know how to heal hate. Writing is her only means of overcoming silence, and she uses it with clockwork precision.” –Le Parisien
About Baïnes (Robert Laffont, 2015):
“France Cavalié has succeeded in creating a terrifying yet discreet portrayal of domestic violence, and which avoids any pathos or clichés about abused women. Her sharp and sensitive writing draws us in and sweeps us away in a whirlwind of fear, leaving us breathless. A remarkable performance.” –Version Femina
About Restons-en là (Stéphane Million, 2013) :
“I really liked the story, about a girl who stops drinking and gets dumped. She takes it very badly and becomes a bit of a stalker… It’s an excellent book.” –Point de vue