Middle-age is a time for reflection. But for Jocelyne Guerbette,
the 47 year-old owner of a local haberdashery in
Arras, France, the stakes grow higher
when she wins an $18 million lottery jackpot. For over twenty years, Jocelyne
has lived an uneventful life in "a dreary town, no airport, a grey
place." She has endured the loss of a child and marital ups and downs to a
handsome man, now sober, who works for Haagen-Dazs and whom Jocelyne imagines
dreams of driving a Porsche and being married to a younger, thinner wife. She
loves her two adult children, but they clearly have lives of their own. Tending
to the shop, cultivating light-hearted friendships and caring for an infirm and
much-adored father have sustained her, along with maintaining a successful blog
that has enough "unique visitors" that advertisers now want space.
Jocelyne narrates author Gregoire
Delacourt's compressed, evocative novel. The story is structured in short,
revelatory chapters infused with an unexpected twist that speaks volumes about
the nature of truth, love and happiness. When Jocelyne learns of her lottery
win, she is faced with a choice—to share the news or to hide the truth? As
Jocelyne reassesses the startling truths and realities of her life, she
compiles lists of what she might do with the winnings. Should she buy a potato
peeler? A flat screen TV? Or maybe a home by the sea? But would the money wreck
the however imperfect life that Jocelyne comes to believe she deeply loves?
Publication Date: March 25,
2014
Note: This review is a
reprint and is being posted (in a slightly different form) with the permission
of Shelf
Awareness. To read this review on Shelf
Awareness: Reader's Edition (4/1/14), click HERE