This is a story set in Paris and its environs. Basically, its plot is about an architect and his sister in their forties or fifties, trying to recall the past and dig up facts about their mother and the mysterious way she died when the siblings were small children. Their entire family is on the dysfunctional side with secretive, repressed members who are directly related to the siblings.

The story starts with the architect Antoine Rey, the protagonist who is divorced from his wife Astrid, taking his sister Melanie to a place where they went as children, as a birthday present for Melanie. While there, the two of them start remembering things that happened in their childhood, especially those facts about their mother Clarisse. On the way back, a sudden memory so upsets Melanie that she crashes the car. Throughout the rest of the story the two of them search for what that memory suggested, while they try to handle their own life problems with the people in their lives, such as Antoine's three children, his obsession with his ex-wife, and the new love that shows up after the first half of the plot.

The novel, in its essence, is literary, but even a literary novel has to deliver what it promises to the reader in its beginning. I wasn’t bored while I read this book because it offers quite sensitive insights into the characters and the writing is highly skillful. Throughout the story, however, I hoped the author would come up with more satisfactory conclusion of what she offered the reader as a family secret. It wasn't so; the secret failed to be a secret.

On the plus side, I was caught up in the warped characteristics of the people and the setting of Paris; although, at the end, I felt quite cheated and wondered why I did bother spending time with this book.

The author's insight into the characters

the ending because the plotting of the novel has failed.

disappointed because the author's first book, Sarah's Key was a very good one.

is Tatiana de Rosnay. This is her second book. The first one is Sarah's Key.

Although it is written well, the plot disappoints, and the story drags in some parts.

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Created Jun 25, 2014 at 6:19pm • Submit your own review...