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Mirror of our Sorrows

On sale

2nd February 2023

Price: £20

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Selected: Hardcover / ISBN-13: 9781529416923

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“Tremendous and enjoyable”La Libre Belgique
“A great success”La Croix


April, 1940. Louise Belmont runs, naked, down the boulevard du Montparnasse. To understand the tragic scene she has just experienced, she will have to plunge into the madness of the ‘Phoney War’, when the whole of France, seized by the panic of a new World War, descends into chaos.

Alongside bistro-owner Monsieur Jules, new recruit Gabriel and small-time crook Raoul, Louise navigates this period of enormous upheaval and extraordinary twists of fate, for as the Nazi’s advance, the threat of German occupation will uncover long-buried secrets and make strange bedfellows.

With his characteristic wit and verve, Pierre Lemaitre chronicles the greatness and decline of a people crushed by circumstance. In Mirror of Our Sorrows, the final novel in the Paris between-the-wars trilogy, is an incandescent tale that is both burlesque and tragic.

Translated from the French by Frank Wynne

Reviews

La Croix
A great success
BibliObs
Lemaitre's new historical chronicle possesses the desperate irony that made the early volumes so successful
Le Journal de Quebec
Pierre Lemaitre brings his brilliant interwar trilogy to a close
La Libre Belgique
Tremendous and enjoyable
Le Monde
Great characters and a roaring pace
Le Soir
Spectacular
Financial Times
A vibrant tapestry of a decayed and defeated France