The Balcony
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A "breathtaking" century-spanning portrait of the inhabitants of a French village (Jennifer Egan), revealing the deception, despair, love, and longing beneath the calm surface of ordinary lives.
What if our homes could tell the stories of others who lived there before us? Set in a small village near Paris, The Balcony follows the inhabitants of a single estate-including a manor and a servants' cottage-over the course of several generations, from the Belle vâpoque to the present day, introducing us to a fascinating cast of characters. A young American au pair develops a crush on her brilliant employer. An ex-courtesan shocks the servants, a Jewish couple in hiding from the Gestapo attract the curiosity of the neighbors, and a housewife begins an affair while renovating her downstairs. Rich and poor, young and old, powerful and persecuted, all of these people are seeking something: meaning, love, a new beginning, or merely survival.
Throughout, cross-generational connections and troubled legacies haunt the same spaces, so that the rose garden, the forest pond, and the balcony off the manor's third floor bedroom become silent witnesses to a century of human drama.
In her debut, Jane Delury writes with masterful economy and profound wisdom about growing up, growing old, marriage, infidelity, motherhood - in other words, about life - weaving a gorgeous tapestry of relationships, life-altering choices, and fleeting moments across the frame of the twentieth century. A sumptuous narrative of place that burrows deep into individual lives to reveal hidden regrets, resentments, and desires, The Balcony is brimming with compassion, natural beauty, and unmistakable humanity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Delury's melancholy debut takes place between 1890 and 2009 and revolves around a manor house and servant's cottage in Benneville, a fictional French village. An American au pair takes care of young lodie as Olga, the girl's smothering mother and a concentration camp survivor, packs up the family to move to the United States; only later does the au pair learn of the child's leukemia. During WWII, after Olga had been sent to the camp, a woman looted the manor house to feed her daughter, Charlotte, more than bread and butter. Years later, Charlotte's husband suffers from cancer treatments and can keep down nothing but toast and tea. Another elderly woman's husband has a debilitating stroke that transforms him into an unrecognizable version of himself. Careful readers will note the connective tissue between Olga and Charlotte, but occasionally the author struggles in creating a link. The prose is tight and each stories are told well; this is a satisfying examination of the various and irrevocable ways lives intersect.
