Strike Your Heart

Description

Marie is the prettiest girl in her provincial hometown and is dating the most popular boy in town. She is the envy of all her schoolmates and she loves it. When she falls pregnant and gives birth to Diana, things change. Diana steals the hearts of all who meet her, inciting nothing but jealousy in her mother. This is Diana's story. The story of a young, brilliant woman who grows up without maternal affection. It is the story of Diana's relationships with other women: her best friend, the sweet Elisabeth; her mentor, the selfish Olivia; her sister, the beloved Celia; and, of course, her mother. It is a story about the baser sentiments that often animate human relations: rivalry, jealousy, distrust. With her trademark wit, brevity, and tightly wound plots, Nothomb, one of Europe's most acclaimed and beloved authors, has devised a telling adult fable about human relationships and the mother-daughter bond. 'Amelie Nothomb's twenty-fifth novel is among her very best.' -Telerama

Amelie Nothomb was born in Japan to Belgian parents in 1967. She lives in Paris. Her edgy fiction, unconventional thinking, and public persona have combined to transform her into a worldwide literary sensation. Her books have been translated into twenty-five languages and counting, and been awarded numerous prizes including the French Academy's Grand Prix for the Novel, the Rene-Fallet, Alain-Fournier, and Jean-Giono prizes. Alison Anderson's translations for Europa Editions include novels by Selim Nassib, Amelie Nothomb, and Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt. She is the translator of The Elegance of the Hedgehog (Europa, 2008) and The Life of the Elves (Europa, 2016) by Muriel Barbery.

Praise for Strike Your Heart "'Strike Your Heart' is a finely honed, piercing novel. No wonder it is acclaimed in France. If you are human, it will strike your heart, too." --The Washington Post "Nothomb dazzles with her shocking denouement and leaves her stunned reader with a bitter aftertaste in the mouth and a craving for more." --The Minneapolis Star Tribune "Nothomb's writing is fablelike, so that when the threads of the story converge into a morality tale, as those who have suffered and been wronged find revenge and solace in one another."--The New York Times "Readers who love the alienation and dark comedy of Haruki Murakami would be wise to hunt down Nothomb's work; she's treading in the same forests as Murakami, but her steps are lighter and she covers more territory than the celebrated Japanese novelist." --The Seattle Review of Books "With Strike Your Heart, Amelie Nothomb, a renowned Belgian writer, creates a haunting fable about the things mothers do to their daughters." --Refinery29 "A dynamic, rich novel that is brisk and short, yet also covers a great deal and is, emphatically, life-full." --The Complete Review "Elegant writing, fairy-tale qualities, psychological insight, a toothsome plot, and an intoxicating Frenchness--or perhaps in this case, Belgian-ness. . . This razor-sharp morality tale can be read in an afternoon but contains a lifetime of wisdom about how we cope with the weaknesses of those closest to us." --Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review) "This razor-sharp tale begins as a Madame Bovary of the 1970s." --FranceInfo "A story of frustration and familial jealousy, in the best vein of Amelie Nothomb." --Marie Claire (France) "Amelie Nothomb has written one of her best novels. Poignant, cruel, and formidably masterfully written." --Lire "A marvelous novel in which the genius of childhood is tested." --Liberation "A new opus by Amelie Nothomb, an author as versatile as she is vital." --Page des libraires Praise for Amelie Nothomb "Amelie Nothomb is such an utter astonishment, the shock of reading her for the first time is like realising you have missed a whole movement, or a century, in the scheme of things." --Scotland on Sunday "Read Amelie Nothomb! It's a bit like opening a bag full of surprises." --Le Globe-Lecteur "Nothomb's Life Form fuses the sincere with the subversive to tell a story as winning as it is perverse." --The Seattle Times "Nothomb's prose has a hard-edged clarity and a slyness to it." --The Los Angeles Times