Dominique Barberis, John Cullen (TRN) Sunday in Ville d'Avray

Annotation

LONGLISTED FOR THE PRIX GONCOURT AND SHORTLISTED FOR THE PRIX FEMINA'I was in the melancholy state of mind that often comes over me when I go to see my sister, and I think I started by getting a little lost . . .'It's a Sunday in early September and a woman leaves muggy Paris to visit her sister in the western suburbs of the city. Ville-d'Avray is less than an hour away, but it seems like another world with its secluded streets and set-back houses.The sisters' relationship is ambiguous. Jane's visits to Ville-d'Avray leave her discomfited; for all Claire Marie's seeming provincial passivity, she knows exactly how to get under Jane's skin.As they settle into the torpor of the afternoon, Claire Marie describes a curious encounter from her past. Sundays are when she thinks about life - whether she expected something more from it, and whether she is still waiting for it to begin.Sharply observed and wryly funny, A Sunday in Ville-d'Avray is a haunting novel about half-shared truths and desires that can never fully be expressed.'A novel with a singular evocative power.' Le Monde