Contact Clock Question Basket Search User Store Facebook Mail Instagram Twitter

Ladivine

by Marie NDiaye


Shortlisted for the IMPAC International Dublin Literary Award for 2018.

Longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2016. Clarisse Riviere's life is shaped by a refusal to admit to her husband Richard and to her daughter Ladivine that her mother is a poor black housekeeper. Instead, weighed down by guilt, she pretends to be an orphan, visiting her mother in secret and telling no-one of her real identity as Malinka, daughter of Ladivine Sylla. In time, her lies turn against her. Richard leaves Clarisse, frustrated by the unbridgeable, indecipherable gulf between them. Clarisse is devastated, but finds solace in a new man, Freddy Moliger, who is let into the secret about her mother, and is even introduced to her. But Ladivine, her daughter, who is now married herself, cannot shake a bad feeling about her mother's new lover, convinced that he can bring only chaos and pain into her life. When she is proved right, in the most tragic circumstances, the only comfort the family can turn to requires a leap of faith beyond any they could have imagined.Centred around three generations of women, whose seemingly cursed lineage is defined by the weight of origins, the pain of alienation and the legacy of shame, Ladivine is a beguiling story of secrets, lies, guilt and forgiveness by one of Europe's most unique literary voices. Translated from the French by Jordan Stump

336 pages.

ISBN: 9781848666047

€ 12.05 

In Stock.

Usually despatched in 2-5 working days.

Date of Publication: 06/04/2017

  
Cover of Ladivine - Marie NDiaye - 9781848666047Paperback

Ladivine also appears in these Categories:

Fiction