Translated and with an afterword by Faith Evans
Set among the bustling train stations and narrow rues of 1930s Paris, where the threat of war already hangs in the air, Marie is a hypnotically powerful novel about the interior life of a 20th century woman, suffused with exquisite moments of sensual acuity and profound insight.
Marie is happy. She has a husband whom she adores and she’s easily pleased by the smaller things in life – the drag of a cigarette, a hotel balcony, the scattering of light across the sea.
But while on holiday, she spots a young man lying on the beach and is instantly drawn to him. Their connection develops into a passionate and intense love affair, opening a window into Marie’s untapped desires. As she explores the vibrant immediacy of her yearnings, Marie begins to see her entire world anew.
‘Magnificent.’ – Sunday Times
‘Exquisite, elegant, and nonsentimental . . . Bourdouxhe conveys the sharp, almost physical intensity of thought as experience by a central character suspended between apathy and restless curiosity.’ – Irish Times
‘Bourdouxhe was a writer admired by her contemporary Simone de Beauvoir. It is easy to see why: female autonomy, a delight in Paris and its freedoms, the rapture of living in the present and seizing life with both hands . . . luminous and unforced.’ – Times Educational Supplement
‘An unforgettable, thrilling achievement . . . What this novel does, no less, is stake a claim to Bourdouxhe’s rightful position alongside Proust and Virginia Woolf as an explored of interior life . . . inspiring and impassioned.’ – Sunday Times
