Pascale Quiviger

Un très beau roman, très sensible.

The Breakwater House is a devastating tale of motherhood, friendship, grief and love, astonishingly written (and brilliantly translated by Lazer Laderhendler). The language is as luminous as the house of the narrator when she arrives at its magical door, as lyrical as the stories Aurore weaves for the blood sisters Lucie and Claire, and as necessary as the love which binds mothers to their children. Compulsory, compelling, all-enveloping reading.

After the first chapter, I thought I hated this; midway through, and particularly after the scene where Marianne makes dinner, I thought I loved it (it's beautifully written); near the end, I found it increasingly hard not to skim. I'm not very "romantic." Contains some really fascinating stuff about mothers and nations.

The Perfect Circle was stunningly and poetically written describing the dangers of love, loss of self and rebirth through that pain. The shifts of thought and feeling are subtle so that it sometimes feels like a beautiful pounding on the same nail. By the end, however, you realize you've made an amazing long journey. I almost never reread passages while reading a book. With this one I found myself doing it repeatedly.