Book Review – French Windows by Antoine Laurain trans. by Louise Rogers Lalaurie @GallicBooks

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About the Book

Book cover of French Windows by Antoine Laurain

Nathalia, a young photographer, is seeing a therapist. Having accidentally photographed a murder, she finds that she can no longer do her job.

Instead, Doctor Faber suggests that she write about the people she observes in the building opposite. Starting with the actor turned YouTube life coach on the ground floor and going all the way up to the fifth floor, Nathalia creates vivid accounts of the lives of each of her neighbours. Are her stories real or imaginary?

With each session, the doctor and his mysterious patient will get closer to the truth. But as they approach the final floor of the building, Nathalia’s stories take a truly deadly turn . . .

Format: Hardcover (208 pages) Publisher: Gallic Books
Publication date: 6th June 2024 Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Mystery

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My Review

In my eyes, a new book by Antoine Laurain is always cause for celebration because you can be sure you’ll be entertained in fine style. I was first introduced to his writing when I read The President’s Hat in 2016, which I described as ‘quirky, humorous and charming’. I found The Reader’s Room (2020) equally entertaining and I loved Red Is My Heart (2022), a collaboration with artist Le Sonneur.

French Windows pays an obvious homage to the 1954 film Rear Window, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and based on a short story by American author, Cornell Woolrich, but has a deliciously French flavour and displays the author’s trademark wit. As well as being a clever mystery, the accounts Dr Faber encourages Natalie to write describing the lives of the occupants of the apartment building across from her own are wonderful ‘stories within a story’, little snapshots if you’ll pardon the pun of other lives. Something the individuals have in common is change in their lives, in some cases prompted by quite inconsequential things such as a computer screensaver.

Dr Faber has his own little quirks. For example, his passion for collecting passepartout keys (keys that can open any door in a building), perhaps seeing a parallel with his role as a therapist. He regards smoking as akin to an art form, proudly recalling how he acquired the skill of smoking a cigarette ‘hands-free’ and describes himself as ‘a very gifted smoker’. He cannot imagine life without a cigarette, all previous attempts to give up – at the urging of his wife – having failed. But he finds pleasure even in the failed attempts, relishing the ‘special joy’ of each ‘tender reunion’.

From feeling he is control of their therapy sessions, Faber finds himself increasingly compelled to discover whether the stories Nathalie brings him are works of imagination or true. It now seems to be her controlling him as he waits expectantly for her to deliver the next story. When the final one arrives, he gets more than he bargained for.

Even if you’ve worked some of it out before that point, perhaps inspired by the title of one of the author’s previous books, French Windows is still a wonderfully quirky and entertaining read.

I received a digital review copy courtesy of Gallic Books. French Windows is book 1 of my 20 Books of Summer 2024.

In three words: Clever, stylish, witty
Try something similar: Watch Rear Window (1954)

About the Author

Author Antoine Laurain

Antoine Laurain is the award-winning author of novels including The Red Notebook and The President’s Hat. His books have been translated into 25 languages and sold more than 250,000 copies in English. He lives in Paris. (Photo: Publisher author page)

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Book Review – Estella’s Revenge by Barbara Havelocke

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About the Book

Book cover of Estella's Revenge by Barbara Havelocke

You know Miss Havisham. The world’s most famous jilted bride. This is her daughter’s story.

Raised in the darkness of Satis House where the clocks never tick, the beautiful Estella is bred to hate men and to keep her heart cold as the grave.

She knows she doesn’t feel things quite like other people do but is this just the result of her strange upbringing?

As she watches the brutal treatment of women around her, hatred hardens into a core of vengeance and when she finds herself married to the abusive Drummle, she is forced to make a deadly choice: should she embrace the darkness within her and exact her revenge?

Format: Hardcover (336 pages) Publisher: Canelo
Publication date: 9th May 2024 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

I’ve read quite a lot of reviews of Estella’s Revenge that start with a ‘confession’ that the reviewer has never read Great Expectations. I don’t think that’s necessarily a disadvantage; in fact, it might actually be the opposite in this case. Although someone who does not know Dickens’s novel won’t be able to tell how the author has reimagined or enhanced it, they also won’t find themselves comparing it to the original.

I have read Great Expectations – a number of times – and it’s my favourite Dickens novel. Therefore, especially in the parts of the book set during Estella’s childhood in which many of the scenes – and even the dialogue – mirror the original, I found it exceptionally difficult to avoid noticing changes to timelines, characters and events. Estella’s childhood encounter on the marshes one night, for example. If you’ve read Great Expectations, you’ll be aware that it has a significance that would not be apparent from just reading Estella’s Revenge. Looking at it another way, perhaps it is a little gift from the author for readers who know Dickens’s novel.

Seeing events from Estella’s point of view provides an interesting perspective and the author does a great job of conjuring up the dark, gloomy and forbidding atmosphere of Satis House and what it must have been like to grow up in such a household. I liked how the author transformed the Pocket clan from merely obsequious to malign, especially in their attitude towards Estella. It’s one of the clever ways we see why Estella might be so receptive to Miss Havisham’s manipulation, because she fears she might be displaced in her affections by someone else, such as Pip.

Actress Martita Hunt as Miss Havisham in Great Expectations (1946)

For me, Miss Havisham is one of Dickens’s most inspired creations and Barbara Havelocke really gets to the heart of this twisted, vengeful and sad individual. Personally, Martita Hunt’s portrayal of Miss Havisham [left] in David Lean’s 1946 film adaptation is the one that always comes to mind. I admit I struggled a bit with the way the author has Miss Havisham’s character develop later in the book. It seemed an unlikely epiphany.

The ‘missing years’ of Estella’s story in Great Expectations, the period she spends abroad at finishing school, provide an opportunity for the author to let her imagination run riot. We see Estella using some of the wiles she developed during her childhood to come to the aid of someone she forms a close connection with. It bolsters the belief instilled in her by Miss Havisham of her power to manipulate men and the rightness of it becoming her mission in life. ‘Make them love you, make them hate you, make them destroy themselves with their desire for you, because that is the only power a woman has.’ But during her time in Paris, Estella also experiences herself what it is to be betrayed.

If you’ve read Great Expectations, the name Bentley Drummle will fill you with dread but, even if you haven’t, it soon will. Estella is quickly disabused of the notion that Drummle will abide by the conditions she has placed on their marriage, with devastating consequences. For Estella her treatment at the hands of Drummle is proof that what Miss Havisham has drilled into her from an early age is true: men are not to be trusted and will always seek to exercise power over women. I was sad at the path Estella chooses because it seemed it could only bring her sorrow, and I was sorry that the little spark of compassion that Pip ignited in her earlier in her life was not sufficient to change the course she decides to follow.

Although there were aspects of Estella’s Revenge that didn’t quite work for me, it’s definitely a powerful reimagining of a classic story which at the same time demonstrates the debt owed to Charles Dickens’s original creation.

I received a proof copy courtesy of Canelo.

In three words: Atmospheric, dramatic, suspenseful
Try something similar: Lady MacBethad by Isabelle Schuler

About the Author

Author Barbara Havelocke/Barbara Copperthwaite

Barbara Havelocke is an international bestselling author whose psychological thrillers have topped Amazon and Kobo. Her writing career started in journalism, interviewing the real victims of crime – and the perpetrators. The realistic, complex characters who populate her fiction reflect this deep understanding. When not writing, Barbara is found walking her two dogs, Scamp and Buddy, or taking photos of wildlife.

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