Early in her novel, Fontaine writes, “. . .the grey skin of a man who is too young for the varnished wooden box with its gilt pattern and golden handles” (13). A beautiful and tragic sentence, which in many ways sums up this slim novel. It isn’t so much a novel but more a collecti...
I'm glad I read this in what I think was a very good translation; my grasp of French wouldn't be nearly good enough to deal with the delicacy of the language, the subtlety of the imagery. Everybody who appears in this animated landscape is profoundly affected by it, but the effect is intriguingly de...