Karine Lalechère Books

En cette année 1831, Mary, une fille de 15 ans entame le tragique récit de sa courte existence : un père brutal, une mère insensible et sévère, en bref, une vie de misère dans la campagne anglaise du Dorset. Simple et franche, lucide et impitoyable, elle raconte comment, un été, sa vie a basculé lorsqu'on l'a envoyée travailler chez le pasteur Graham, afin de servir et tenir compagnie à son épouse, femme fragile et pleine de douceur. Elle apprend avec elle la bienveillance, et découvre avec le pasteur les richesses de la lecture et de l'écriture.. mais aussi l'obéissance, l'avilissement et l'humiliation. Finalement, l'apprentissage prodigué ne lui servira qu'à écrire noir sur blanc sa fatale destinée. Et son implacable confession.

Marian Sutro is an outsider: the daughter of a diplomat, brought up on the shores of Lake Geneva and in England, half French, half British, naive yet too clever for her own good. But when she is recruited from her desk job by SOE to go undercover in wartime France, it seems her hybrid status, and fluent French, will be of service to a greater, more dangerous cause.

Rosemary's young, just at college, and she's decided not to tell anyone a thing about her family. So we're not going to tell you too much either: you'll have to find out for yourselves what it is that makes her unhappy family unlike any other. Rosemary is now an only child, but she used to have a sister the same age as her, and an older brother. Both are now gone - vanished from her life. There's something unique about Rosemary's sister, Fern. So now she's telling her story; a looping narrative that begins towards the end, and then goes back to the beginning. Twice. It's funny, clever, intimate, honest, analytical and swirling with ideas that will come back to bite you. We hope you enjoy it, and if, when you're telling a friend about it, you do decide to spill the beans about Fern - it's pretty hard to resist - don't worry.