Life is Short and Desire Endless
A Novel
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
This delicious novel revolves around a classic love triangle: two men and one woman. She is English, they are French and American. The Frenchman is married, the American is not. None of this makes any difference. The woman—elusive, unreliable, a classic femme fatale—flits back and forth between her two lovers, driving them both mad.
Lapeyre’s subtle, graceful, yet compulsively readable narrative shows us the folly of men who fall helplessly in love with women they don’t understand. Its theme is universal and its humor is sly. It is the perfect introduction in English to this brilliant writer’s work.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An appealing oddness of language elevates Lapeyre's English-language debut above the standard love triangle story. Louis Bleriot-Ringuet, known as Bl riot, is French; Nora Neville is English; Murphy Blomdale is American. Murphy works in finance, and Bl riot, married to Sabine, works as a translator but often relies on his parents, friends, and wife for money. Nora, who takes acting classes, is "a strange, fairly unstable girl... both sassy and oddly taciturn," in Murphy's view. They live together in London until Nora moves to Paris and begins an affair with Bl riot. Murphy misses her terribly, finds little satisfaction at work, and visits a childhood friend of Nora's to gain insight into Nora's character. In Paris, Nora finds work in a hotel and continues her affair with Bl riot, but the attendant complications, including Sabine's growing suspicions, bring Nora to miss Murphy, setting in motion events that will change the lives of all involved. With the exception of a postmodern turn late in the narrative, Lapeyre's novel, winner of the 2010 Prix Femina, engaging though it is, won't take readers anywhere they haven't been before.
