A Publishers Weekly Most Anticipated Book

Valérie Perrin’s first new novel since her breakout bestseller Fresh Water for Flowers

"Valérie Perrin is a prodigious storyteller."—Elle  

"Perrin’s most ambitious, most intimate, most liberating, most important book yet."—Le Parisien

Tata begins with a mystery—Agnés receives a phone call from a local policeman saying she must come to Gueugnon in the French provinces to identify the body of her aunt Colette. This comes as a shock because, as far as Agnés knows, her beloved Aunt Colette died three years earlier. From this call on, Perrin’s “most ambitious novel yet” opens into a rich and delectably propulsive mix of multigenerational family saga, suspenseful chase novel, and vibrant testament to the resiliency and ingenuity of women who choose to carve out a destiny of their own. 

Tata teems with unforgettable characters—circus performers, piano prodigies, murderers, doppelgängers, survivors, cops, abusers, footballers, filmmakers and secret lovers, to name a few—and is the most incontrovertible proof thus far that there is nobody better than Valérie Perrin at capturing the ebb and flow of life in all its glorious unpredictability. At the novel’s center is Colette, Agnés’s beloved tata, her father’s sister, whose decision to fake her own death and disappear from the world at first seems inexplicable. From this deception, however, emerges an intricate, beautifully woven story about a remarkable woman told with humor, delicacy, and depth.

WHAT EARLY READERS ARE SAYING

"A cocktail of emotions."

"Magnificent."

"Impossible to put down!"

"A novel you devour and simply cannot close until you've reached the last page."

"Exceptional."

"After reading such a novel, I could stop reading altogether."