The woman with the red notebook is fifth novel from the French writer antoine laurain and also his latest success, which has already sold more than forty thousand copies and is being translated into fifteen languages. It has been my most recent reading and this is my review.
antoine laurain
Laurain was born in Paris in the early XNUMXs. She studied cinema and his career began directing shorts and writing scripts. Passionate about him , he was working as an assistant to an antique dealer. The experience inspired her first novel by him, Ailleurs si j'y suis, which won the Drouot Prize in 2007. Later, in 2012, he published Mitterrand's hat which received the best reviews from connoisseurs and readers and which also meant various awards.
The woman with the red notebook — review
About
The woman with the red notebook is a relatively short novel, set in Paris, which tells us the story of two main characters, Laure Valadier and Laurent Letellier.
Laure is a restorer of art that suffers robbery one night when she comes home in which her bag is stolen. With a blight in the head that stupefies her at first, she decides to go to a nearby hotel where lose consciousness. Just the next morning, and on the way to work to the small bookstore which he owns after he stopped being a stressed-out banker, Laurent meets a bag of a woman abandoned on a garbage can and decides to take it with the intention of returning it to its owner.
Notepad
But the wallet and cell phone are evidently missing, so his purpose seems almost impossible were it not for the fact that, among various feminine objects, Laurent finds a red notebook full of notes, thoughts and memories. He can't help but read it, although he makes the excuse that it's by proxy discover some data to refer you to a name, address or clue to identify or locate that woman.
With what he is reading, Laurent begins to rebuild Laure's life and he gets trapped in a feminine universe that will fascinate him. Thus, he will know things until he finds his name and address. Divorced And daughter teen call chloe, this will also be the one who encourages him and collaborates in this almost detective work.
Meanwhile, after recovering in the hospital from the aftermath of the robbery, Laura comes home and with the help of william, your best friend and coworker, too she will know the man who has been in her house and has returned her bag, although she has no clue about it either. So she will investigate who can it be to locate him and thank him for the gesture.
Which is
Well, just one intimist and at the same time, beautiful love story between two people who do not meet until the end of the novel. In the process, and only with the link of the words written in the red notebook, the first to fall in love with that unknown woman is Laurent. And that brings consequences like break up with your partner. But he has already accessed unique privacy and he also manages to get to Laure's home where he meets William, a co-worker, whom he introduces as a neighbor and he tells him what has happened and asks him to come take care of Laura's cat. So he also sits with a privilege powerful: walking through that intimacy that suddenly becomes physical and also makes you rethink your own.
When Laure returns, she feels the same interest between curious and suspicious, for that stranger who has been in your house, however, it begins to seem so close to you. Then she decides to also investigate her, because he has left her a note where she does not identify herself and apologizes for what she may think. He end is inevitable too, and many may dismiss it as predictable because of the tone of the narrative, but that's why it works.
The secondary characters they have the right importance as allies, like William or Laurent's daughter, her father's confidante and decisive in facilitating the meeting between him and Laure. Even the cats, Belphegor, Laure's, and the huge main coon de Chlóe have their leading role.
They finish the job environments where the characters move: the bookstore where Laurent works, the apartments where they live or the streets of Paris.
Ultimately
The success, in addition to the simple but, in turn, clever and well constructed plot, is the rhythm of the author's prose where the dialogues They are inserted within the paragraphs, without separation. But, far from making it difficult to read, they are just as good basted that print agility.
so we have a very nice novel ideal for summer and all year round.