“In the years after she left we wished her a happy Mother’s Day by telephone. Camille, my little sister, was still at nursery school. She put her whole heart into colouring and decorating a card with its message of love. She recited it to me over and over again before D Day, giving me the kiss that was supposed to punctuate the recitation.
I called first - my privilege is the eldest - then, after the usual congratulations, I passed the receiver to Camille. I can still see and hear that little six-year-old girl with her card in her hand reciting into the telephone the words she had taken a whole week to memorise.”
This novel is sober and unadorned - no window-dressing or pulling to pieces - in its attempt to transcribe the trauma caused by a mother’s departure, leaving behind her husband and two daughters. Florence Emptaz sets off to find an unimaginable mother, and tries to understand her absence and her silences, everything she forgets and everything she denies.
Florence Emptaz holds the prestigious “agrégation” teaching qualification for French and is a consultant writer. Having already written an essay, Aux pieds de Flaubert (Grasset), and a novel, Le Mangeur de chagrin (Le Riffle), Fête des mères is her second book.
L'auteur
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