In the novel A Good Life, French author Virginie Grimaldi delivers a sensitive, familial love story about the unrivaled, transformative bond of sisterhood.
The book is set in the beautiful Basque countryside, where the adult Delorme sisters, Emma and Agathe, are reunited after a five-year estrangement. The two are forced to come together to spend one last summer vacation at the home of their beloved--now deceased--paternal grandmother, Mima. The seaside dwelling--about to be sold--holds dear memories that have anchored the sisters throughout their lives, despite their differences.
Emma, the older sister by five years, is a practical wife and mother, now approaching her 40s. Obstinate Emma resented her sister when she was first born--"My sister was born this morning. She's ugly... Daddy asks me if I'm pleased, I say no." However, the responsible, protective, and exceedingly reliable Emma has spent her life looking out for and worrying about Agathe--a still-single vegetarian; an impetuous free spirit who can be disorderly, snarky, and unhinged. Agathe suffers from panic attacks that were spurred on in early childhood by the divorce of the girls' parents.
During the week shared at Mima's house for the last time, the Delorme sisters relive and revisit bygone stories. Very short, evocative chapters render slice-of-life remembrances that take readers through episodes that defined and shaped the women's childhoods and teenage years--and probe stories of family and other loves and losses sustained into adulthood. These enlightening scenes are contrasted against Emma and Agathe and their lives in the present. They come to discover how Mima and the "good times" they shared via her influence at the Basque house every summer served to calm and steady them through the storms of life--the most notable being their grappling with personal bereavement over their father's absence and the contention manifested in their mother's subsequent emotional instability. The deep challenges that befall the family mark the women's identities, personalities, and coping methods. Tensions build in the narrative as Emma and Agathe ultimately confront each other and tend to the wounds that drove them apart.
Grimaldi's concise prose, translated by Hildegarde Serle, is striking and vivid, painting a sympathetic portrait of the enduring bond of sisterhood. Readers will fall under the spell of a compassionately revealed story that blends poignancy and humor in depicting the transcendental nature of familial love and forgiveness. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines
Shelf Talker: An evocative, powerful love story about two adult sisters forced to reconcile their lives at their grandmother's seaside home in the Basque Country.