Your Promise

A spellbinding novel about a writer who breaks a promise and faces the implications of penning the story of a shattered romantic relationship.

Your Promise, an exciting new novel by award-winning French writer, Camille Laurens, packs one helluva punch! This riveting psychological thriller examines self-awareness when played out amidst the memory of a shattered, long-term romantic relationship. 

The story launches with 50-year-old, Claire Lancel, who writes the story of an old love, Gilles Fabian—this despite her once making a promise to never to share details about him, his domineering, narcissist proclivities, and/or their relationship. 

Readers know right from the start that the story of Claire and Gilles will not end well, but that is precisely the hook.  Claire conveys her story from prison. Why is she incarcerated? What did she do? 

These questions drive a masterfully constructed narrative rooted in a legal court case that slowly divvies out details about the lovers. This includes witness testimonies that trace--and often contradict--the story of an idyllic and seductive relationship, where emotion and passion turn to pain, and “love” succumbs to terminal insidiousness. Claire ultimately becomes a victim of control that forces her to grapple with hard truths about who she was and who she is; her choices and mistakes; and the meaning of her now reduced life. 

Laurens (In His Arms, Girl) renders her story with spellbinding suspense. She sets up a broad canvas then gradually zooms in closer and closer on stark details that ultimately trap and ensnare her characters--and surprise readers.

Your Promise by Camille Laurens (Translated from the French by Adriana Hunter)

Other Press, Paperback $18.99, 978163545734, 400 pages

Publication Date: May 12, 2026

To order this novel on Bookshop.org, link HERE

 

Learn more about Camille Laurens and her work HERE

 

Forgotten on Sunday

 

An emotionally engrossing novel that exposes the ways losses sustained by two French women, born generations apart, come to define their lives. 

An unlikely friendship is forged between two women, born generations, apart in Forgotten on Sunday, a profound, emotionally complex novel written by Valérie Perrin and translated from the French by Hildegard Serle.

 

For years, 21-year-old Justine Neige has lived in Milly, a small French village, while happily working as a nursing assistant at the Hydrangeas, the local retirement home. There, Justine is most intrigued by Hélène, an enigmatic, 96-year-old nicknamed “The Beach Lady.” Drawn to Hélène and her stories, Justine willingly collects and record her remembrances in a notebook at the behest of Hélène’s grandson. In doing so, Justine uncovers details of Hélène’s long, fascinating life that include romantic passions; a bistro job where she catered to the poet Baudelaire; and the harrowing atrocities of World War II. These incredibly moving stories of love, loss, and forgiveness awaken Justine’s desires: “I feel nostalgic, nostalgic for what I’ve not yet lived.” These feelings deepen when anonymous, mysterious phone calls are made from the Hydrangeas that falsely notify relatives that their loved ones have died. The contacts have either forgotten or refused to keep in touch with the geriatrics; the calls finally force folks to visit.  As a police investigation ensues, Justine probes the history of her own family—and questions are suddenly raised regarding the long-ago, tragic car, accident that claimed her parents’ lives.

 

Perrin (Freshwater for Flowers) skillfully juggles the storylines of Justine and Hélène, heightening the drama of each with unexpected revelations. Delicate plot points--infused with elements of historical fiction juxtaposed against contemporary themes--will keep readers, charmed and deeply engrossed. 

 

Forgotten on a Sunday by Valérie Perrin (translated from the French by Hildegarde Serle)

Europa Editions, $28, hardcover, 304 p., 9798889660187

Publishing Date: June 4, 2024

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

 

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review as originally published on Shelf Awareness (June 14, 2024), link HERE 

 

To read a longer form of this review as published on Shelf Awareness for the Book Trade (April 4, 2024), link HERE

A Good Life

An evocative, powerful love story about two adult sisters forced to reconcile their lives at their grandmother's seaside home in the Basque Country.

In A Good Life, French author Virginie Grimaldi delivers a sensitive, familial love story about the unrivaled, transformative bond of sisterhood. The novel is set in the beautiful Basque countryside, where the adult Delorme sisters, Emma and Agathe, are reunited after a five-year estrangement. The two were forced to come together to spend one last summer vacation at the home of their beloved--now deceased--grandmother Mima. The seaside dwelling, about to be sold, holds dear memories that have anchored the sisters throughout their lives, despite their differences.

 

During the week shared at Mima’s house for the last time, the Delorme sisters revisit bygone stories. Short, evocative chapters render slice-of-life remembrances that take readers through episodes that defined and shaped the women’s childhood and teenage years—and probe stories of family and other loves and losses sustained into adulthood. These enlightening scenes are contrasted against the women’s lives in the present. They come to discover how Mima and the “good times” they shared via her influence at the house every summer served to calm and steady them through the storms of life. The deep challenges that befall the family mark the women’s identities, personalities, and coping methods. Tensions build in the narrative as Emma and Agathe ultimately confront each other and tend to the wounds that drove them apart.

 

Grimaldi’s concise pros, translated by Hildegard Searle, is striking and vivid, painting a sympathetic portrait of the enduring bond of sisterhood. Readers will fall under the spell of a compassionately revealed story that blends poignancy and humor in depicting the transcendental nature of familial love and forgiveness.  

 

A Good Life by Virginie Grimaldi (Translated from the French by Hildegarde Searle)

Europa Editions, $28 hardcover, 288 pages, 9798889660248

Publishing Date: May 28, 2024

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review as originally published on Shelf Awareness (May 31, 2024), link HERE 

 

A longer-form review of this novel was also published at Shelf Awareness on March 26, 2024.  Link HERE to read the review in its original long-form.