LE PARLOIR / THE PARLOR – Paul du Bouchet

Information

Author:

Paul du Bouchet

Date:

Hachette Fictions
January 2025

Author:

Additional Info

THE PARLOR

Rights Holder: Hachette Fictions
Original Language: French

Isabel prefers silence to lengthy conversations, even if it makes her seem aloof or even hostile. She’s prone to making sudden decisions, ones she sometimes can’t explain even to herself. So when she abruptly leaves her husband, taking her daughter and two suitcases, she doesn’t really know where she wants to go or what she plans to do with her newfound freedom.

In Poullic, Brittany, she rents a room from Violette, an elderly woman who helps her slowly rediscover the joy of living. Isabel starts working at the local library and begins an unlikely correspondence with a man serving a long sentence at the Poissy prison.

From letters to meetings in the visiting room, where they’ll finally come face to face, there is but one step to take. But it’s a decisive one. The silence between them must be broken.

Paule du Bouchet taught philosophy to high school seniors before dedicating herself to writing. Starting in the 1980s, she authored numerous books for children and young adults.

In 2011, she published her first explicitly "adult" book with Actes Sud. Since then, five more titles have followed, published in Gallimard’s “Blanche” collection and by Des Femmes editions.

Related Portfolio

PLEXIGLAS – PHILIAS

DES MOUTONS PLEIN MA CHAMBRE / SHEEP ALL OVER MY BEDROOM – URAS

JUSQU’À LA BÊTE / UP UNTIL THE BEAST – DEMEILLERS

DEUX HOMMES-GRENOUILLES DANS LE SALON / TWO FROGMEN DANS LE LIVING ROOM – FABIENNE BETTING