In The Rain Watcher, Tatiana De Rosnay (Sarah's Key) once again uses Paris as a dramatic backdrop. The novel overlays the small dramas of a family amid the crushing events of a devastating natural disaster.
The Malegarde family gathers in Paris to celebrate father Paul's 70th birthday and his 40th anniversary with wife Lauren. Their grown children, Linden and Tilia, travel from San Francisco and London, respectively, for the long-overdue reunion. As each family member arrives at the hotel, rain pours outside, accompanied by warnings in the news of potential catastrophic flooding. Their celebratory weekend quickly falls apart as first Paul and then Lauren become seriously ill while the Seine continues to rise and much of the city is evacuated.
De Rosnay creates a dark and ominous atmosphere as the family crisis unfolds in parallel with the growing natural disaster. In addition to the obvious urgencies of Paul and Lauren's medical problems, each family member carries old fears, pain and secrets that gradually come to light as the situation unravels. Paris is like a character itself here, with De Rosnay intimately describing its distinctive features and neighborhoods. She portrays its ongoing destruction in a way that is completely immersive as the river outside surpasses historic flood levels and inundates the city, transforming it into something unrecognizable. The Malegarde family, too, transforms, slowly pulling together, turning to each other for comfort and beginning to heal. --Suzan L. Jackson, freelance writer and author of Book By Book blog