Consolation

Description

A story of life, love and second chances from the author of the international bestseller, Hunting and Gathering An international bestseller and French publishing sensation Consolation is a dazzling, heartbreaking tale of one man, two remarkable women and an unforgettable transvestite. Charles Balanda is forty-seven; a successful architect, he is constantly on the move. But from the moment he hears about the death of the woman he once loved - Anouk, the tragically big-hearted mother of a childhood friend - his life begins to unravel until, one day, he finds himself on a Paris pavement covered in blood. But fate brings him one final chance to be happy in Kate, an enchanting young woman, herself damaged but fearless and in love with life. The resulting story is a triumphant, spellbinding and ultimately consoling novel about the power of a second chance.

Born in 1970, Anna Gavalda was a teacher whose collection of stories, I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere, shot her to fame (published in the UK with her novella Someone I Loved). Her novel Hunting and Gathering (Ensemble c'est tout) was a bestseller in several countries, selling over two million copies, and was made into a film; this was followed by Consolation. Her books have been translated into thirty-six languages. The mother of two children, she lives and writes just outside Paris.

Too often the best European literature doesn't reach this island; here we have a little consolation * Waterstone's Books Quarterly * An absorbing tale... a gripping story that gallops along with un-put-downable speed * Mslexia * Despite an awkward start, it makes an uncomplicated, easily digestible, cheering read: so it's perhaps unsurprising that it became the best-selling French novel of 2008, moving over half a million copies and being translated into 32 languages -- James Urquhart * Independent * It is a confident author who works with a large cast of characters, and in many instances - notably the children - Gavalda nails it -- Lee Randall * The Scotsman * Gavalda's touching writing makes what could have been a melancholy text into a beautifully insightful novel. -- Eve Middleton * Living France *