Sunday in Ville-d'Avray, A
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In this subtly haunting novel, a married woman confesses her encounter with a mysterious man, which threatens the stilted calm of life in a Paris suburb.
Echoing the acclaimed and unsettling film Sundays and Cybèle from 1962, A Sunday in Ville-d’Avray is suffused with the same feeling of disquiet: Two sisters meet as the light is fading in a detached house in Ville-d’Avray, each filled with the memory of their childhood hopes and fears, their insatiable desire for the romantic, for wild landscapes worthy of Jane Eyre, and for a mad love, all concealed beneath the appearance of a sensible life. Claire Marie, considered by most to be a dreamy, passive sort of person, suddenly breaks from the everyday by confiding in her sister about an unlikely meeting in this seemingly peaceful provincial town. To her listener’s amazement, she tells of her wanderings around the Fausses-Reposes forest, the Corot Ponds, and the suburban train stations, and the lurking dangers she encountered there.
In this arresting novel reminiscent of Simenon, Dominique Barbéris explores the great depths of the human soul, troubled like the waters of the ponds.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A woman visits her dissatisfied sister in the eponymous Paris neighborhood, leading to a series of shared revelations in Barbéris's provocative if lukewarm English-language debut. Both the unnamed narrator and her sister, Claire Marie, are married and claim to be happy, yet something troubles each of them. Together, they recall their dreamy and strange youth—"No one's childhood is really normal, I suppose," the narrator reflects—spent together pouring over their love of the mysterious Rochester in Jane Eyre and avoiding the criticisms of their mother. Later, they share secrets with one another, leading Claire Marie to divulge a strange yet intense encounter with Marc Hermann, a Hungarian businessman whose behavior, origins, and intentions become more muddled the longer she knows him and as they begin an affair. An examination of chance and fate plays out through Claire Marie's ominous affair, and as her sister listens she can't help but see herself and her own staid life through the lens of Claire Marie's attempt to break free. A study of desire and contentment, time and expectation, this slim novel raises alluring questions about paths not taken, but the stories the sisters tell one another don't add up to much. Though it doesn't have much staying power, fans of Patrick Modiano will appreciate this.
