Catherine Certitude
by Patrick Modiano, Jean-Jacques Sempé, William Rodarmor
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Pub Date 4 Feb 2021 | Archive Date 31 Jan 2021
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Description
A classic French story from Nobel Prize-winner Patrick Modiano and celebrated illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempé.
Beautifully illustrated, this is a love letter to Paris, ballet and childhood for fans of The Little Prince, Le Petit Nicholas and Madeline.
Catherine lives with her gentle father, Georges Certitude, who runs a shipping business in Paris with a failed poet named Casterade. Father and daughter share the simple pleasures of daily life: sitting in the church square, walking to school, going to her ballet class every Thursday afternoon. But just why did Georges change his name to Certitude? What kind of trouble with the law did Casterade rescue him from? And why did Catherine's ballerina mother leave to return to New York?
Translated by William Rodarmor
Advance Praise
'Elegant. Apparently simple and transparent nostalgia belies its sophistication of observation. Deftly characterised illustrations.' BOOKS FOR KEEPS
'What particularly engages is the way Modiano captures memories of childhood: fragmented, misunderstood, but glowing in the crucible of recollection' BOOKLIST
'Really affecting' BOOKBAG
'Feather-light illustrations. This lovely book suggest the delicacy and strength of an eggshell' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ONLINE
Available Editions
| ISBN | 9781783449828 |
| PRICE | |
Featured Reviews
Erin H, Librarian
Catherine, watching her daughter dance ballet, reminisces about her own childhood in Paris with her father. He has a suspicious occupation with a failed poet, who seems rather controlling. They are in the "packaging business" and all manners of strange things happen.
Catherine and her father enjoy the simple pleasures of life and she happily recalls these moments with her father.
Beautifully illustrated in pastel tones, this book will put a smile on your face.
Jonny W, Reviewer
Catherine Certitude is a strange little tale of childhood memory, of Paris, and of unanswered family questions. Catherine watches her young daughter in a New York dance studio and thinks of what sets her family apart from any other New Yorker: her mind wanders back to her fragmented memories of childhood with her father in Paris.
Catherine never fully understands what it is that her gentle-natured father does, though she is clearly suspicious about the ‘packaging business’ he runs. Without a conventional plot structure, we find ourselves cast back into certain moments in their relationship - moments when her father struggles to fit in with a refined crowd, warm recollections of conversations over lunch.
Jean-Jacques Sempé’s illustrations transport us liltingly between Greenwich Village and Paris with the same haze as when young Catherine and her father would remove their glasses. The beauty of soft edges is as much about what they can hide.
I enjoyed it. It reads like our own jumbled minds. I like the unanswered questions. It makes it real.
Elif A, Reviewer
Fathers and daughters are always different, right? There are Paris and ballet and also a tender father-daughter relationship in this book. The pastel-toned drawings of Jean-Jacques Sempé also feel as warm as the story told. It was a short book, but even though I didn't wear glasses, I loved it as I was a kid who fell in love with the grace of the ballet just like Catherine and saw her father as the hero. Although it took 20-30 minutes to read, the smile he left on my face remained much longer when it was finished. This is a cute little book.
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