Hello and Happy French Friday!
I’ve got a feel-good French read for you today by one of my favourite authors – Gillian Harvey’s The Bordeaux Books Club!
From the publisher:
Love books? The Bordeaux Book Club is seeking new members!
When Leah and her husband moved to France, it was with the dream of becoming self-sufficient. But in truth, it’s not the ‘good life’ she’d imagined, as three hours of digging barely yield a single straggly carrot. Worse, her teenage daughter is acting up, and her husband seems to find every strange excuse under the hot French sun to disappear.
So when her friend entreats her to join the new bookclub she’s forming, Leah decides it’s something she will do for herself. The chance to make new friends, to drink a few glasses of wine, and to escape into stories that take her miles away from the life she’d thought would be her own happy-ever-after.
But the book club is a strange group of misfits. There’s prickly Grace, who lives alone and seems to know everybody and like no-one. Buttoned-up Monica, who says her husband is away and appears to be parenting her baby all alone. Handsome builder George, who has barely read a book before. And Alfie – who is a full two decades younger than everyone else, and is hiding a devastating secret…
As the stories they read begin to bring the new friends closer together, Leah is about to discover that happy-ever-afters don’t always look how you expect them to…
I always enjoy Gillian Harvey’s tales of life in rural France (I wrote about One French Summer last year and have since read all of her books set in France), and this was no exception. The premise itself is lovely and believeable – a group of somewhat misfit expats comes together for monthly book club. As someone who moved to France on a one-way ticket when I was younger and who would have given anything to be a member of a book cub (any sort of club where I could socialise in English, actually!) I strongly related to the members feelings of being adrift in a (sometimes new) life situation. Over the course of the book, we get to know each member better and understand their reasons for joining, sticking with and eventually needing the book club gatherings and we watch as they become firm friends despite seemingly not having much in common besides the club.
From the cover and premise, you might expect this to be a somewhat fluffy “expat life in France” read, but the characters have more substance than that, and they all have backstories you care about. The various issues faced by the characters are realistic (dying parents, suspicions of affairs, loneliness, family issues, surly teenagers, postpartum depression) and make the story a deeper read than a scratch-the-surface #lifeinFrance novel.
Another lovely feature of the book is the “stories within the story” aspect – the book club reads their way through classic novels (think: Great Expectations, Wuthering Heights and the like) and I loved how the book club compared and contrasted their own lives with those of the characters in the books they read. This also made me want to read some of those classics all over again!
A delightful read that will transport you to the Bordeaux region and make you want to join your own book club!
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Disclosure: I received an advance e-copy of the book from NetGalley and Boldwood Books in exchange for an honest review. I am not receiving any compensation for reviewing the book. Neither the author nor the publisher reviewed this post prior to publication. All opinions are my own.
Buy The Bordeaux Book Clubon Amazon (this affiliate link should bring you to the Amazon store in, or closest to, your country).
For free worldwide shipping, find The Bordeaux Book Club on Blackwell’s.
Support your local Indie bookstore and purchase The Bordeaux Book Club on Bookshop.org.
Please note: This post contains affiliate links. I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. This post aslo contains affiliate links for Blackwell’s and Bookshop.org. This means that if you click over and purchase something, I will receive a very small percentage of the purchase price (at no extra cost to you). Thank you in advance!
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