The Margot Affair

Description

A New York Times Editor's Choice A Herald's Best Summer Book 'An unusual and accomplished first novel . . . moves in intriguing leaps and twists.' Economist 'Gorgeous' New York Times 'Grapples with the complexity of familial love.' Marie Claire French teenager Margot is the illegitimate daughter of a prominent stage actress and an influential politician. The comings and goings of their unconventional family, in a small Parisian apartment, cast her whole life under a veil of secrecy and shame. One summer, Margot decides to exercise her own agency when she meets a well-regarded journalist whose trust seems surprisingly easy to gain. But as Margot is drawn into an adult world, she learns how one impulsive decision can change the contours of her life, and the lives of those around her, in ways she could never have imagined. In this simmering debut Sanae Lemoine explores private and public faces, truth and deceit, love and persuasion. The Margot Affair is a novel about the bone-deep bond between mothers and daughters, the devotion and betrayal of friendship and the dangers of pushing beyond the boundaries of a life lived in the shadows.

Sanae Lemoine was born in Paris to a Japanese mother and French father and raised in France and Australia. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and her MFA at Columbia University. She now lives in New York.

An unusual and accomplished first novel . . . moves in intriguing leaps and twists. * Economist * Absorbing... The emotional mapping of the novel is intricate and precise... Lemoine captures with painful accuracy the clumsy ignorance of adolescence. * Financial Times * Missing Paris? Look no further than this atmospheric coming-of-age tale . . . * I News * Gorgeous . . . very French. . . in lush, lyrical prose that perfectly captures the heightened emotion and confusion of being a young woman with a bruised heart and limited experience . . . It asks the ultimate question about this most complicated of relationships: What will a mother do for her child? * Sarah Lyall, New York Times * Deftly crafted, thoughtfully observed, this absorbing coming-of-age novel explores the tense and complex relationship between Anouk and Margot, the notions of family and motherhood, deceit and betrayal. * Fanny Blake, Daily Mail * Drumming with tension, The Margot Affair grapples with the complexity of familial love. * Marie Claire * A raw, honest account of the tenderness and cruelty that lurks between mothers and daughters. Lemoine illuminates the ways in which violence and care are strung through generations like nerves and sinews. A brave portrayal of love in all of its complexities that questions whether we should endeavour to hold onto the people we love, or whether we should let them go. * Jessica Andrews, author of Saltwater * Subtle, beautiful, serious. * Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia * Another coming-of-age tale... about the lasting effects of deceit and betrayal. * Herald * Undoubtedly one of the top literary fiction reads of the summer, this brilliant debut, touted as a 'coming of age' novel, is a wonderful study of the mother-daughter relationship. * Women's Weekly * An engaging examination of youth, age and cruelty. A stimulating and provocative read. * Irish Times *