Member Review

This book is astonishing, it is so absorbing, raw, painful and hopeful, there isn't a wasted word or sentence and it offers every feeling economically and with a brutal truth..

Isolated artist Dominique receives a letter from her father's lawyer that her father is in Paris and is dying. She hasn't had contact with him for 30 of her 37 years, and the novel is the exploration of the reasons for that and also the resolution.

Dominque's paintings and experience of South America merge with meetings with her father, and the entwined narrative of exploration in the wild and in the streets of Paris are incredibly moving, as she comes to realise things about her past and her family that were partially forgotten and not understood.

Dreamlike connections and surreal sequences have real impact, the vivid tenderness and the horror of memory combine into breathtaking moments - Petit has an incredible command of the language and I was completely bought in to every page and every feeling.

A truly wonderful book - don't miss reading this one, you won't regret it.