Madame Bovary of the Suburbs by Sophie Divry
The story of a woman's life, from childhood to death, somewhere in provincial France, from the 1950s to just shy of 2025. She has doting parents, does well at school, finds a loving husband after one abortive attempt at passion, buys a big house with a moonlit terrace, makes decent money, has children, changes jobs, retires, grows old and dies. All in the comfort that the middle-classes have grown accustomed to. But she's bored. She takes up all sorts of outlets to try to make something happen in her life: adultery, charity work, esotericism, manic house-cleaning, motherhood and various hobbies - each one abandoned faster than the last. But no matter what she does, her life remains unfocussed and unfulfilled. Nothing truly satisfies her, because deep down - just like the town where she lives - the landscape is non-descript, flat, horizontal. Sophie Divry dramatises the philosophical conflict between freedom and comfort that marks women's lives in a materialistic world. Our heroine is an endearing, contemporary Emma Bovary, and Divry's prose will remind readers of the best of Houellebecq, the cold, implacable historian who paints a precise portrait of an era and those who inhabit it and in doing so renders existence indelibly absurd. Translated from the French by Alison Anderson
With its winks and nods to Flaubert's Madame Bovary, this is one of the most exciting finds of the season * Le Monde *
The most paradoxical novel of the season: depressing, even desperately so, but at the same time, profoundly exalting, gentle and fluid * L’Hebdo *
One can't help thinking of Houellebecq when talking about Madame Bovary of the Suburbs * Elle *
The most paradoxical novel of the season: depressing, even desperately so, but at the same time, profoundly exalting, gentle and fluid * L’Hebdo *
One can't help thinking of Houellebecq when talking about Madame Bovary of the Suburbs * Elle *
Sophie Divry lives in Lyon, France. The Library of Unrequited Love, her first novel, was a bestseller in France and a boutique hit in the UK.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780857054708 |
| ISBN 10 | 0857054708 |
| Title | Madame Bovary of the Suburbs |
| Author | Sophie Divry |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Quercus Publishing |
| Year published | 2018-07-12 |
| Number of pages | 288 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |