Attachment

When Anna discovers a long letter that her mother Marie wrote, Marie has been dead for some time, and Anna is shocked to learn that her mother disappeared with a secret. The letter is addressed to Marie’s first great love, a much older teacher who she describes as a great dinosaur. In this gripping novel by Florence Noiville, we follow along with Anna as she tries to unravel the mystery of her deceased mother’s past. She takes her questions to her family and to her mother’s friends: Did Marie send the letter? Was it received? Who was this man, and is he still alive? In a desperate search, she tries to piece together the clues.
Attachment explores the obsessive relationship of love, observing both mother and daughter under its magnifying glass. Readers ultimately find Anna and Marie both seeking answers to the same question: What is there inside of us that makes us become so attached to someone we never should have approached? The novel also questions the link between love and writing, the stories that love inspires, and the way in which we construct and own the story of our lives.
Praise for the French edition
“With the discovery of the letters sent (or maybe not) to a lost lover, the reader finds him- or herself bewitched by the sweet melancholy of passing time through the strength and beauty of personal connections and the words used to describe them.”—La Vie

“This study of love—a vast and delicate subject—is told with grace. It resonates long after reading.”—Femina

Florence Noiville is a staff writer for Le Monde and editor of foreign fiction forLe Monde des Livres. She is the author of several books. Teresa Lavender Fagan is a freelance translator living in Chicago; she is the translator of many Seagull books.