Tremendous and enjoyable - La Libre Belgique
A great success - La Croix

April, 1940. Louise Belmont runs, naked, down the boulevard du Montparnasse. To understand the tragic scene she has just experienced, she will have to plunge into the madness of ‘the Phoney War’, when the whole of France, seized by the panic of a new World War, descends into chaos. Alongside bistro-owner Raoul, new recruit Gabriel, and small-time crook Desire, Louise navigates this period of enormous upheaval and extraordinary twists of fate.

With his characteristic wit and verve, Pierre Lemaitre chronicles the greatness and decline of a people crushed by circumstances, depicting the heroes and bastards, liars and cowards … and a few men of good will.

In Mirror of Our Sorrows, the final novel in the Paris between-the-wars trilogy, Lemaitre reaches his peak, with an incandescent tale that is both burlesque and tragic.

Translated from the French by Frank Wynne