
Reading list
Set in Normandy, Michèle Roberts’ richly atmospheric novel about deceit and hypocrisy resonates with the power possessed by long-held secrets.
Secrets and lies linger in the very walls of the solid, old Normandy house in which Thérèse and Léonie, French and English cousins of the same age, grow up after the war. Intrigued by parents’ and servants’ guilty silences and the broken shrine they find buried in the woods, the girls weave their own elaborate fantasies, unwittingly revealing the village secret and a deep shame that will come to haunt them in their adult lives.
About the Author
Michèle Roberts’ novel Daughters of the House (1992) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the W.H. Smith Literary Award.