Anna Gavalda is something of a literary heroine in her native France. This book sold half a million copies there and has since been translated from French into a myriad of different languages, one of them, thankfully, being English.
Camille is a mysterious, young, thin person with a secret, dark past who works as a cleaner at night and lives in a tiny, awful attic room. Downstairs, in a huge, lavish apartment, lives Philibert oarquet de La Durbelliere (oh, how I would love a name like that!), a shy aristocrat, with his foul-mouthed flatmate, Franck, the angry chef.
When Camille collapses with hunger and exhaustion, Philibert rescues her and she is soon ensconced in the huge, lavish place. Franck does not like the cut of her jib to begin with but soon the three of them form an unlikely alliance.
They are eventually joined by Franck’s grandmother, Paulette, after they spring her from a hideous rest home outside Paris.
It’s pretty incredible tale in many ways but so gloriously French that, if you like that sort of thing, it’s the reason to read a book like this. Also, the story is ultimately uplifting.
All four of the loony flatmates are at a loss on their own, but make a strange sort of sense when they are together. And as for romance, well, Franck might seem like a boorish hoon, but a man who looks after his granny can’t be all bad, can he?
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Share this post