A Good Life

A Good Life
By Virginie Grimaldi

You can't walk along a French beach or peruse a French free little library or bookshop without spotting a Virginie Grimaldi novel or three with their colourful, summery Erin Hilderbrandesque covers. The best selling French novelist has now published her first English translation and curiosity got the better of me so I was delighted to get my hands on a copy.

Told from two perspectives in both present day, and linear past timelines, this engaging and endearing novel tells the story of sisters Emma and Agathe, who come together after a falling out and a five year break, for a week's vacation in their deceased grandmother's house in the Basque country before it is sold.

They immediately fall into familiar patterns of communication and behaviour with each other, the bonds of sisterhood, evident in their muscle memory, but there's a tension that prompts us to wonder what happened between them, and the answer is slowly, heartbreakingly, shockingly revealed.

I really love the banter between the sisters throughout. Their personalities are so different but Grimaldi beautifully captures the sororal dynamics of love/despise/respect/resent/share/envy and the way we perceive events differently based on our experience, and often our place within the family order. There are some truly dark themes in this seemingly light and breezy novel; bereavement, infidelity, domestic abuse, divorce, parental abuse, eating disorder, suicide, mental health, fertility and miscarriage.

Despite all this, it's not a difficult read. Agathe's witty humour lifts the mood throughout. Emma's uptightness is a source of much of the comedy and their self depreciating style grounds everything in acceptance of their circumstances.

Translated by Hildegarde Serle, her fingerprints are all over this. Lovers of Valerie Perrin's English translations will recognise her style. Hopefully this is only the first of many to come. Highly recommend.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #EuropaEditions for the ARC

This book was very sweet! Although it's hard for me to speak on it given that I don't have a sister, I feel like Grimaldi really captured the essence of what it means to be siblings and grow as siblings. The plot was easy to follow, even with the flashbacks I was never confused or overwhelmed - in fact I'd say I was anticipating the flashbacks hoping they would give me a hint or two about what was going on in the 'present', why the sisters were acting the way they did, what the big reveal was going to be (boy, I was honestly not expecting that, even though I really should have)... I also really liked the setting; take me away from Paris and Barcelona, give me Basque country!!
My only issues were with the translation. As a French speaker myself, I feel like the at some points the English language translations used were inconsistent and were not getting across exactly what the author had intended in the original text. But I know translating is an infinitely difficult task, so really it didn't take away too much from the story.

I love books about summer and sisterly binds and this book has both! I cannot wait to share my full thoughts and review on this one. I apologize I’m a bit behind on reviews due to some unexpected serious health issues but I’m slowly getting there and this book is the perfect medicine for the long summer days ahead to get lost in!