Con Brio

by Brina Svit

In a brasserie off the Boulevard St-Germain, a renowned novelist watches, entranced, the motions of a young woman's hands folding a restaurant bill into a paper boat.

This passing observation - slim fingers against a white linen tablecloth - provides the springboard for this story of love and jealousy. The novelist's orderly life vanishes the instant he admires this strange woman's hands; the discipline of forty fruitful years dissolves.

On an impulse, he proposes. She answers without hesitation - yes, she will marry him, but only on her terms. She will occupy his house, but not his bed. When she moves in, Kati upends her new husband's meticulous domestic arrangements, then his sanity. Her stubborn detachment transforms the writer from a cool, amused observer of life into a creature ravaged by doubt, passion and jealousy.

With a brutality counterpointed by the elegance and subtlety of Savit's prose, this story dramatises the ruinous consequences of sexual obsession.

Genres: Novels

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Brina Švigelj-Mérat (alias, Brina Svit) is a Slovenian writer.

Reviews

[Robert Wechsler]

An older Slovenian writer living in Paris impulsively marries a young woman he knows nothing about, and who does not want to tell him anything about herself. She moves into his apartment, but keeps him at arm̕s length and drives people away from him. He narrates his own humiliating story in a matter-of-fact voice. Beautifully written/translated.

[Juliet]

It's hard to decide what I think about this book. The prose was exceptional and the lead character well wrought. And I could walk around the apartment with ease. Actually, I think my problems are because it's a deliberately one sided report of a series of events, and the ugly behaviour is supposed to be unpleasant. Good work Brina Svit.

[Urh]

Dobro napisana knjiga o ženski lisici in nekemu psu, okej, ni čisto tako, ampak prav komot bi to bila basen.

[Anand Charles]

Picked the dusty edition from one of the book shelves while travelling . The intro was intriguing enough to make me buy , a well orchestrated series of events allowing the reader to follow within the character and give a gasp of the author for his feelings ! Sometimes we can correlate a lot with what happens around us also ! Happiness indeed is a bout of high fever :)

[Ranjana]

An excellent study of the consequences of sexual obsession and jealousy. I really loved the lushness and descriptions in Brina Svit’s prose

[Eva Rajher]

2,5*
these people are sick

[Vilis]

Teikumu un ainu līmenī ļoti labi uzrakstīts, bet lielākās līnijas man tomēr nesagāja kopā. Tiesa, otro pusi izlasīju apslimis.