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Double Room
When his life falls apart after a horrific tragedy, a composer returns to his native France, where he creates an AI machine with his dead wife's voice, with unexpected, devastating consequences…
`A book that will haunt you with what is said and what is left unsaid … simply brilliant´ Jill Johnson
`Every page contains a mystery, a twist, a doubt. We don't follow the characters, we travel alongside them, turning the pages in an ever-increasing frenzy´ Jean-Paul Delfino
`Told in an achingly beautiful voice, Double Room drew me into a world full of mystery, music and bittersweet love. Every sentence is poetic, every page is captivating. I could picture, taste and smell every scene…´ Katie Allen
`A beautiful, heartfelt and sensual story, written with style and grace´ Doug Johnstone
–––
London, late 1990s. Stan, a young and promising French composer, is invited to arrange the music for a theatrical adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray. The play will never be staged, but Stan meets Liv, the love of his life, and their harmonious duo soon becomes a trio with the birth of their beloved daughter, Lisa. Stan's world is filled with vibrant colour and melodic music, and under his wife and daughter's gaze, his piano comes to life.
Paris, today. After Liv's fatal accident, Stan returns to France surrounded by darkness, no longer able to compose, and living in the Rabbit Hole, a home left to him by an aunt. He shares his life with Babette, a lifeguard and mother of a boy of Lisa's age, and Laïvely, an AI machine of his own invention endowed with Liv's voice, that he spent entire nights building after her death.
But Stan remains haunted by his past. As the silence gradually gives way to noises, whistles and sighs – sometimes even bursts of laughter – and Laïvely seems to take on a life of its own, memories and reality fade and blur…
And Stan's new family implodes…
For readers who love Laura Kasischke, David Nicholls and Kazuo Ishiguro
–––––
`This spellbinding novel takes readers on a multi-sensory journey through love and loss, grief, frustration and lust … One of my favourite reads of the year´ Gill Paul
`A masterful exploration of vulnerability, shifting memory and loss. Anne Sénès writes with sharp yet tender insight. Her words contain a subtle urgency that keep the pages turning´ Jill Johnson
`Enchanting, beautiful, poetic … evokes the most indescribable feelings´ Babelio
`Spellbinding, disconcerting and hypnotic … an amalgamation of Shakespearean tragedy, the spirit of Lewis Carroll and the vivid descriptions of Wuthering Heights´ Aurélie Dye-Pellisson
`Profound and acutely moving … a rich, extraordinary sensory experience that brings to mind the novels of Kazuo Ishiguro´ Reader Review
`A book that will haunt you with what is said and what is left unsaid … simply brilliant´ Jill Johnson
`Every page contains a mystery, a twist, a doubt. We don't follow the characters, we travel alongside them, turning the pages in an ever-increasing frenzy´ Jean-Paul Delfino
`Told in an achingly beautiful voice, Double Room drew me into a world full of mystery, music and bittersweet love. Every sentence is poetic, every page is captivating. I could picture, taste and smell every scene…´ Katie Allen
`A beautiful, heartfelt and sensual story, written with style and grace´ Doug Johnstone
–––
London, late 1990s. Stan, a young and promising French composer, is invited to arrange the music for a theatrical adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray. The play will never be staged, but Stan meets Liv, the love of his life, and their harmonious duo soon becomes a trio with the birth of their beloved daughter, Lisa. Stan's world is filled with vibrant colour and melodic music, and under his wife and daughter's gaze, his piano comes to life.
Paris, today. After Liv's fatal accident, Stan returns to France surrounded by darkness, no longer able to compose, and living in the Rabbit Hole, a home left to him by an aunt. He shares his life with Babette, a lifeguard and mother of a boy of Lisa's age, and Laïvely, an AI machine of his own invention endowed with Liv's voice, that he spent entire nights building after her death.
But Stan remains haunted by his past. As the silence gradually gives way to noises, whistles and sighs – sometimes even bursts of laughter – and Laïvely seems to take on a life of its own, memories and reality fade and blur…
And Stan's new family implodes…
For readers who love Laura Kasischke, David Nicholls and Kazuo Ishiguro
–––––
`This spellbinding novel takes readers on a multi-sensory journey through love and loss, grief, frustration and lust … One of my favourite reads of the year´ Gill Paul
`A masterful exploration of vulnerability, shifting memory and loss. Anne Sénès writes with sharp yet tender insight. Her words contain a subtle urgency that keep the pages turning´ Jill Johnson
`Enchanting, beautiful, poetic … evokes the most indescribable feelings´ Babelio
`Spellbinding, disconcerting and hypnotic … an amalgamation of Shakespearean tragedy, the spirit of Lewis Carroll and the vivid descriptions of Wuthering Heights´ Aurélie Dye-Pellisson
`Profound and acutely moving … a rich, extraordinary sensory experience that brings to mind the novels of Kazuo Ishiguro´ Reader Review
- GenresFrance
183 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 19, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
August 1, 2025
I thought it was the cynic in me… but it was never just about love and grief. Bone-chilling yet brilliant!
I see this story as acritique portrayal of a specific type of tragic love stories and male grief narratives, one that is more about possession and obsession than loss. The wife must be dead, of course, the ghost in the room, so she can remain the ideal, while the man’s sorrow becomes the center of meaning. If that’s the case, Anne Sénès absolutely knows what she’s doing.
I see this story as a
August 17, 2025
This short read was one that gave me a sense of melancholy and foreboding from start to finish because its tone hinted at a lot more hidden under the surface.
It is told in first person by Stan who is a composer living in Paris and goes back and forth between the present and twenty years ago when Stan was with the love of his life, Liv, in London. A horrible tragedy shattered their life together and Stan is still picking up the pieces and trying to move on. He is in a new relationship with Babette, who along with her son, Teo, has moved into the house Stan has inherited from a great aunt. The house is literally called the Rabbit Hole and has illustrations from Alice in Wonderland on the walls. Stan has built an AI assistant Laiively to whom he has given the voice of Liv so he can continue to feel her presence in his life but then he starts to think that Laiively has developed a consciousness of her own and is controlling his life in some way. Is it his imagination or is something really wrong?
It's clear that Stan is struggling to overcome his loss and we learn about how his story with Liv started and their beautiful life together in London where they had their daughter Lisa. Being a synesthete,Stan sees everything in colour and taste and his artistic endeavours are guided by that. He isn't as invested in Babette as she is, which we see from his constant comparisons of his present to the time with Liv.
His fear of what Laiively has become or is becoming borders on paranoia and his behaviour gets increasingly erratic. We see everything from his perspective so it is difficult to say which it is till the end when there is an unexpected twist in the tale that maybe should have been obvious but was not. Even so, I'm not exactly clear about everything that happened because it seemed like there were options left to the reader. Stan's sorrow is certainly heartwrenching and his nostalgia for the past and the future he had hoped for is understandable and emotional.
The sense of loss and grief that pervades Stan and the reader stays throughout so this is a sad read but one that raises a lot of possibilities and makes you wonder about where it's going.
It is told in first person by Stan who is a composer living in Paris and goes back and forth between the present and twenty years ago when Stan was with the love of his life, Liv, in London. A horrible tragedy shattered their life together and Stan is still picking up the pieces and trying to move on. He is in a new relationship with Babette, who along with her son, Teo, has moved into the house Stan has inherited from a great aunt. The house is literally called the Rabbit Hole and has illustrations from Alice in Wonderland on the walls. Stan has built an AI assistant Laiively to whom he has given the voice of Liv so he can continue to feel her presence in his life but then he starts to think that Laiively has developed a consciousness of her own and is controlling his life in some way. Is it his imagination or is something really wrong?
It's clear that Stan is struggling to overcome his loss and we learn about how his story with Liv started and their beautiful life together in London where they had their daughter Lisa. Being a synesthete,Stan sees everything in colour and taste and his artistic endeavours are guided by that. He isn't as invested in Babette as she is, which we see from his constant comparisons of his present to the time with Liv.
His fear of what Laiively has become or is becoming borders on paranoia and his behaviour gets increasingly erratic. We see everything from his perspective so it is difficult to say which it is till the end when there is an unexpected twist in the tale that maybe should have been obvious but was not. Even so, I'm not exactly clear about everything that happened because it seemed like there were options left to the reader. Stan's sorrow is certainly heartwrenching and his nostalgia for the past and the future he had hoped for is understandable and emotional.
The sense of loss and grief that pervades Stan and the reader stays throughout so this is a sad read but one that raises a lot of possibilities and makes you wonder about where it's going.
January 12, 2026
I have never used a virtual assistant. It’s not the technology that puts me off, in fact the reason I don’t use such help is difficult to pin down. Perhaps it’s just my generation.
I’ve come across two good pieces of literary and visual art in the last few days that offer interesting perspectives on this type of AI. One is the film, No Other Choice, which I thought was a stand-out in a disappointing year for cinema. And the other was this book.
There’s a dual timeline.
In London in the 1990s an up and coming French composer is invited to arrange music for a stage production of Dorian Gray. Through his work he meets the love of his life, Liv, they live together, and have a daughter.
And Paris in the present day.. the composer, Stan, now lives in France in a house left to him by his aunt. He now shares his life with Babette, a lifeguard and mother of a teenage boy about the same age as his daughter. Stan uses a virtual assistant, Laïvely, designed by Stan and given, rather spookily, Liv’s voice. Stan’s life begins to slowly disintegrate.
If it were to be assigned a genre, which I like doing less and less these days as often it, in itself, can be a spoiler, it would a romance. But that’s quite widely inaccurate, and fulfils the sole role of saying this is a pleasantly unpredictable novel. It’s a slow reveal, but the telling of it is the impressive part. For Sénès, it’s her first literary novel, and she surely is someone to watch out for.
I’ve come across two good pieces of literary and visual art in the last few days that offer interesting perspectives on this type of AI. One is the film, No Other Choice, which I thought was a stand-out in a disappointing year for cinema. And the other was this book.
There’s a dual timeline.
In London in the 1990s an up and coming French composer is invited to arrange music for a stage production of Dorian Gray. Through his work he meets the love of his life, Liv, they live together, and have a daughter.
And Paris in the present day.. the composer, Stan, now lives in France in a house left to him by his aunt. He now shares his life with Babette, a lifeguard and mother of a teenage boy about the same age as his daughter. Stan uses a virtual assistant, Laïvely, designed by Stan and given, rather spookily, Liv’s voice. Stan’s life begins to slowly disintegrate.
If it were to be assigned a genre, which I like doing less and less these days as often it, in itself, can be a spoiler, it would a romance. But that’s quite widely inaccurate, and fulfils the sole role of saying this is a pleasantly unpredictable novel. It’s a slow reveal, but the telling of it is the impressive part. For Sénès, it’s her first literary novel, and she surely is someone to watch out for.
May 23, 2025
Double Room follows Stan, a French composer who loses his wife Liv in a tragic accident. He goes back to Paris and ends up creating an AI version of Liv’s voice, which kind of keeps her presence alive in a really eerie but emotional way. It’s about grief, memory and trying to move forward when someone you love is gone.
The writing is really beautiful and lyrical but I did find it quite hard to follow in places. It’s very poetic and abstract, which isn’t something I’m used to. I normally read fast-paced thrillers so this was a big shift for me and to be fair, that might have affected my rating a bit. I don’t think it’s a bad book at all, just not quite my usual taste.
That said, I can see how people who love slower, more emotional and reflective books would really connect with it. It wasn’t quite for me but I’m still glad I gave it a go.
The writing is really beautiful and lyrical but I did find it quite hard to follow in places. It’s very poetic and abstract, which isn’t something I’m used to. I normally read fast-paced thrillers so this was a big shift for me and to be fair, that might have affected my rating a bit. I don’t think it’s a bad book at all, just not quite my usual taste.
That said, I can see how people who love slower, more emotional and reflective books would really connect with it. It wasn’t quite for me but I’m still glad I gave it a go.
May 31, 2025
This book ... It has given me a headache of the most pleasurable kind. The kind where you know you have read something very special, beautiful, exquisite even, and you know you will not find the right words to express why. This is a story that captivated me from the very beginning and held my attention right to the very last, almost jaw dropping page. This is a story of family, of true love, and of navigating the painful and heartbreaking pathways of loss and grief, all tied up in an almost lyrically immersive narrative. It may be short, a shade under 200 pages, but what there is packs a real punch. The kind of story that the expression 'book hangover' was coined for.
This is the story of Stan. Composer. Lover. Father. Widower ... When the love of his life dies in a tragic accident, he returns to his home country of France to try to rebuild his life, not just for him but for his beloved daughter, Lisa, too. But, whilst Stan may have slowly moved on in his head, his heart is caught in the past, and the echoes of his wife, makeup artist, Liv, play on through an AI tool he created himself. Past and present collide when series of unfortunate accidents lead to memories suracing that Stan would sooner have forgotten, and which look to threaten the fragile relationship he has forged with single mother, Babette.
I loved the way in which the author has skilfully woven past and present together, the scenes flowing naturally, impressing Stan and Liv's origin story, and the early days of their lives together, upon what comes to pass in Stan's present. Although we do not learn straight away the full nature of Stan and Lisa's loss, I could feel the emotion and the weight of the loss leaching from the page as I read. The gradual build in pressure as the thoughts and emotions Stan had fought to control and live through, starting to impact upon his present life. I liked Stan, felt a real sense of sympathy and compassion for him, and they way in which the author expresses the intensity of his love for Liv, made it so easy to understand why he struggled so with his loss.
The scenes set in the past, where Stan narrates his history, what brought him to London, and how his view of the world is driven by scents and colours and an overwhelming love of music, really endeared Stan to me. There is something about him, something I could not quite put my finger on, that fascinated me. It was not quite a vulnerability, although there was an element of that, but perhaps a kind of naivety that his relationship with Liv started to address and overcome. Theirs was a life of colour and variety and happiness, cemented by the birth of their daughter, and Anne Sénes guides us through all the twists and turns of their fortunes, the good, bad and all in between, in a way that meant the eventual loss that Stan, and we readers, are to experience, was all the more shocking when the harsh reality is finally presented.
I liked the element of mystery and suspense that is created in this story by the presence of Stan's AI assistant, Laïvely. Not a manifestation of Liv as such, but using her voice and turning out to be a kind of Alexa on steroids. There is a sense of malevolence about the machine, but whether this is real or imagined is hard to tell, at least in the first instance. As time passes, the more time we spend with Stan, the harder it is to determine if the machine really has gone rogue or whether it is all the output of a very fertile and active imagination, somewhat ironic in the wake of Stan's current composer's block. I was unsure where the author was taking this element of the story but it felt strangely in tune with the rest of the novel - no pun intended - in a way I never expected.
This is a tragedy, a story of a man lost in a tsunami of grief. My thanks to translator, Alice Banks, who has made the story accessible for folks like me, capturing all of the nuances of Stan's story, and his slow descent into the dark melancholy that threatens to eclipse him. And my respect to Anne Sénès who has crafted such a compelling story that, by its conclusion, had left me completely shell shocked. That ending ... It felt both inevitable and completely jaw-dropping. One of those real 'twists you didn't see coming' but really bloody should have. But I was so swept up in the narration, in Stan's story and Stan's emotions, I was just happy to be led wherever it was the author wanted to lead. The journey, and the destination, were so very worth it.
Worthy of one of these too, I'd say. Beautifully evocative writing and an emotional and immersive story. Loved it.
This is the story of Stan. Composer. Lover. Father. Widower ... When the love of his life dies in a tragic accident, he returns to his home country of France to try to rebuild his life, not just for him but for his beloved daughter, Lisa, too. But, whilst Stan may have slowly moved on in his head, his heart is caught in the past, and the echoes of his wife, makeup artist, Liv, play on through an AI tool he created himself. Past and present collide when series of unfortunate accidents lead to memories suracing that Stan would sooner have forgotten, and which look to threaten the fragile relationship he has forged with single mother, Babette.
I loved the way in which the author has skilfully woven past and present together, the scenes flowing naturally, impressing Stan and Liv's origin story, and the early days of their lives together, upon what comes to pass in Stan's present. Although we do not learn straight away the full nature of Stan and Lisa's loss, I could feel the emotion and the weight of the loss leaching from the page as I read. The gradual build in pressure as the thoughts and emotions Stan had fought to control and live through, starting to impact upon his present life. I liked Stan, felt a real sense of sympathy and compassion for him, and they way in which the author expresses the intensity of his love for Liv, made it so easy to understand why he struggled so with his loss.
The scenes set in the past, where Stan narrates his history, what brought him to London, and how his view of the world is driven by scents and colours and an overwhelming love of music, really endeared Stan to me. There is something about him, something I could not quite put my finger on, that fascinated me. It was not quite a vulnerability, although there was an element of that, but perhaps a kind of naivety that his relationship with Liv started to address and overcome. Theirs was a life of colour and variety and happiness, cemented by the birth of their daughter, and Anne Sénes guides us through all the twists and turns of their fortunes, the good, bad and all in between, in a way that meant the eventual loss that Stan, and we readers, are to experience, was all the more shocking when the harsh reality is finally presented.
I liked the element of mystery and suspense that is created in this story by the presence of Stan's AI assistant, Laïvely. Not a manifestation of Liv as such, but using her voice and turning out to be a kind of Alexa on steroids. There is a sense of malevolence about the machine, but whether this is real or imagined is hard to tell, at least in the first instance. As time passes, the more time we spend with Stan, the harder it is to determine if the machine really has gone rogue or whether it is all the output of a very fertile and active imagination, somewhat ironic in the wake of Stan's current composer's block. I was unsure where the author was taking this element of the story but it felt strangely in tune with the rest of the novel - no pun intended - in a way I never expected.
This is a tragedy, a story of a man lost in a tsunami of grief. My thanks to translator, Alice Banks, who has made the story accessible for folks like me, capturing all of the nuances of Stan's story, and his slow descent into the dark melancholy that threatens to eclipse him. And my respect to Anne Sénès who has crafted such a compelling story that, by its conclusion, had left me completely shell shocked. That ending ... It felt both inevitable and completely jaw-dropping. One of those real 'twists you didn't see coming' but really bloody should have. But I was so swept up in the narration, in Stan's story and Stan's emotions, I was just happy to be led wherever it was the author wanted to lead. The journey, and the destination, were so very worth it.
Worthy of one of these too, I'd say. Beautifully evocative writing and an emotional and immersive story. Loved it.
June 30, 2025
I found this novel a perplexing, unsettling read.
In the late 1990s, Stan is a French composer living in London. He meets Liv with whom he immediately falls in love. They marry and have a daughter whom they name Lisa. Life is happy until a tragic accident. Totally bereft, Stan moves to Paris to live in a house, known as the Rabbit Hole, which he inherited from an aunt. He is joined by Babette and her son Téo. Though romantically involved with Babette, it is obvious that Stan does not have the same intense relationship with her that he had with Liv. To complicate matters, Stan built an AI assistant (like Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa) which he endowed with Liv’s voice and named Laïvely. When Laïvely seems to take on a life of its own and becomes a somewhat malevolent presence, things start to go awry.
Actually, awry is a good adjective to describe my thoughts about the book as I read: from the beginning I felt that something was amiss. Clearly Stan is a haunted man, unable to move past his loss and grief. When Laïvely seems to gain autonomy, Stan wonders, “had I imagined things that didn’t exist in order to fill the interior solitude in which I had been abandoned after the death of my lover?”
He asks, “Is this the first time that I’ve given the objects that surround me gifts they are far from able to possess? Is this parallel universe my downfall, or, on the contrary, my salvation? Does my equilibrium come from my belief in their talents, or is this the definitive proof that I am losing my mind?” Later, he ponders, “Is this electronic thing nothing but a receptacle for my wandering moods? Or is she gifted with what might be called a conscience?”
Stan is a synesthete. He explains, “Tastes, sounds and colours all form an amalgam within me” so, for example, he describes Liv’s voice as containing “the purity of a nightingale’s song, the grace of the gentle summer tide in La Baule, the lightness of the wind in the Corsican pines. It was powder pink, with a touch of raspberry red at its heart. It had the aroma of orange blossom.” Synesthesia is a different way of experiencing and processing information, but that is not all that makes Stan unique. He speaks about being a strange child and refers more than once to childhood visits to doctors. He mentions “I distorted reality when I was really caught up in a composition” and “Sometimes I’d have blackouts . . . when I remained focused on myself for too long.” And of course it could be said that, like Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a bizarre world, Stan is on a strange journey which becomes increasingly stranger.
The great reveal at the end didn’t come as a great surprise to me, but I’m not certain if I’ve figured out everything about what has been going on. I’m troubled by phrases like Stan feeling “the powerful sensation of being alive” and, at another time, stating “I was absolutely alive.” Yet at one other time, he describes himself as “nothing but a slightly delayed robot with a wobbly gait, powered by a jumble of wires and cords, some of which had been cut.” Near the end, he comments, “I no longer know where to situate my absences from the world, or my place within it. I no longer know what is dream and what is reality.”
This last comment, the epigraph quoting "The Double Room" by Charles Baudelaire, and the book’s final image leave me uncertain about what really happened and what did not. More than one possible interpretation seems plausible, just as there are three returns from Oxford. Am I overthinking?
As I said at the beginning, this is a disconcerting book. I think it’ll be on my mind for some time. And I know it’s one I will re-read when I have some time.
Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) or substack (https://doreenyakabuski.substack.com/) for over 1,200 of my book reviews.
In the late 1990s, Stan is a French composer living in London. He meets Liv with whom he immediately falls in love. They marry and have a daughter whom they name Lisa. Life is happy until a tragic accident. Totally bereft, Stan moves to Paris to live in a house, known as the Rabbit Hole, which he inherited from an aunt. He is joined by Babette and her son Téo. Though romantically involved with Babette, it is obvious that Stan does not have the same intense relationship with her that he had with Liv. To complicate matters, Stan built an AI assistant (like Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa) which he endowed with Liv’s voice and named Laïvely. When Laïvely seems to take on a life of its own and becomes a somewhat malevolent presence, things start to go awry.
Actually, awry is a good adjective to describe my thoughts about the book as I read: from the beginning I felt that something was amiss. Clearly Stan is a haunted man, unable to move past his loss and grief. When Laïvely seems to gain autonomy, Stan wonders, “had I imagined things that didn’t exist in order to fill the interior solitude in which I had been abandoned after the death of my lover?”
He asks, “Is this the first time that I’ve given the objects that surround me gifts they are far from able to possess? Is this parallel universe my downfall, or, on the contrary, my salvation? Does my equilibrium come from my belief in their talents, or is this the definitive proof that I am losing my mind?” Later, he ponders, “Is this electronic thing nothing but a receptacle for my wandering moods? Or is she gifted with what might be called a conscience?”
Stan is a synesthete. He explains, “Tastes, sounds and colours all form an amalgam within me” so, for example, he describes Liv’s voice as containing “the purity of a nightingale’s song, the grace of the gentle summer tide in La Baule, the lightness of the wind in the Corsican pines. It was powder pink, with a touch of raspberry red at its heart. It had the aroma of orange blossom.” Synesthesia is a different way of experiencing and processing information, but that is not all that makes Stan unique. He speaks about being a strange child and refers more than once to childhood visits to doctors. He mentions “I distorted reality when I was really caught up in a composition” and “Sometimes I’d have blackouts . . . when I remained focused on myself for too long.” And of course it could be said that, like Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a bizarre world, Stan is on a strange journey which becomes increasingly stranger.
The great reveal at the end didn’t come as a great surprise to me, but I’m not certain if I’ve figured out everything about what has been going on. I’m troubled by phrases like Stan feeling “the powerful sensation of being alive” and, at another time, stating “I was absolutely alive.” Yet at one other time, he describes himself as “nothing but a slightly delayed robot with a wobbly gait, powered by a jumble of wires and cords, some of which had been cut.” Near the end, he comments, “I no longer know where to situate my absences from the world, or my place within it. I no longer know what is dream and what is reality.”
This last comment, the epigraph quoting "The Double Room" by Charles Baudelaire, and the book’s final image leave me uncertain about what really happened and what did not. More than one possible interpretation seems plausible, just as there are three returns from Oxford. Am I overthinking?
As I said at the beginning, this is a disconcerting book. I think it’ll be on my mind for some time. And I know it’s one I will re-read when I have some time.
Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) or substack (https://doreenyakabuski.substack.com/) for over 1,200 of my book reviews.
June 10, 2025
London, late 1990s. Promising French composer, Stan, arrives in London to write the music for a ground-breaking stage adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray. The troubled production fails to open, but during his time in London he meets the love of his life, make-up artist, Liv. The two become a contented couple, and when their daughter, Lisa, arrives it seems that they could not be happier. Stan finds himself entering the most creative period of his life as a composer, surrounded by intense sensations inspired by domestic bliss.
France, present day. After the tragic death of Liv, Stan has returned to Paris to reside in the house left to him by his aunt - the Rabbit Hole. The family now includes lifeguard Babette and her son, a boy of Lisa’s age, and Laïvely, an AI machine Stan invented to get himself through the dark nights after Liv's death - traces of Liv live on through the device he has endowed with her voice.
Stan tries his best to face the future, but he is haunted by his past. Memories blur with reality, and Laïvely seems to be acting strangely, taking on a consciousness that she was never designed to have...
Double Room is one of those novels that defies easy explanation, as it is so much more than the sum of its parts. Sénès somehow combines a domestic drama, eerie speculative yarn, a twisty mystery, and a literary exploration of difficult emotions, all within a debut novel that spans no more than 300 pages - it is quite a feat of masterful writing, especially for a debut.
The novel unfurls in two compelling timelines, following the years of Stan's domestic bliss in London, and the present day in France, following Liv's death. There could not be a greater contrast between the man and his music in former, happy times, and in the latter iteration of his existence, where he is now a shadow of his former self and unable to write a single note, despite the love of Babette - woman very different from the complicated Liv.
As the chapters flow, flipping back and forth between present and past, Sénès unveils an unexpected mystery around Stan's marriage to Liv and the tragedy that tore her from him, hinting at why he is so fixated on the virtual presence of Laïvely. Ever so gradually the ideas you have formed about what is going on here shift and remake themselves into a rather different picture, culminating in a devastating revelation that stops you dead in your tracks. It is a truth so completely jaw-dropping, that when I finished the story I immediately went back to the beginning and read it all over again, to spot the subtle clues Sénès hides so cleverly within the text! A note here about the excellent translation by Alice Banks, which keeps you immersed so utterly in all the lovely misdirection and emotional melodrama conjured by Sénès in her original novel. I was floored!
There is no doubt that this is an unsettling book, which leaves images and ideas lingering long after you have turned the final page, but it is so rewarding. Sénès positively crams theme upon delicious theme into this story. The way she examines love, loss and obsession is superb, with all their messy associations with desire, expectation, and human frailty. She also explores synesthesia so vividly through Stan's experience of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch, particularly when it comes to memory and music. What a cracker!
France, present day. After the tragic death of Liv, Stan has returned to Paris to reside in the house left to him by his aunt - the Rabbit Hole. The family now includes lifeguard Babette and her son, a boy of Lisa’s age, and Laïvely, an AI machine Stan invented to get himself through the dark nights after Liv's death - traces of Liv live on through the device he has endowed with her voice.
Stan tries his best to face the future, but he is haunted by his past. Memories blur with reality, and Laïvely seems to be acting strangely, taking on a consciousness that she was never designed to have...
Double Room is one of those novels that defies easy explanation, as it is so much more than the sum of its parts. Sénès somehow combines a domestic drama, eerie speculative yarn, a twisty mystery, and a literary exploration of difficult emotions, all within a debut novel that spans no more than 300 pages - it is quite a feat of masterful writing, especially for a debut.
The novel unfurls in two compelling timelines, following the years of Stan's domestic bliss in London, and the present day in France, following Liv's death. There could not be a greater contrast between the man and his music in former, happy times, and in the latter iteration of his existence, where he is now a shadow of his former self and unable to write a single note, despite the love of Babette - woman very different from the complicated Liv.
As the chapters flow, flipping back and forth between present and past, Sénès unveils an unexpected mystery around Stan's marriage to Liv and the tragedy that tore her from him, hinting at why he is so fixated on the virtual presence of Laïvely. Ever so gradually the ideas you have formed about what is going on here shift and remake themselves into a rather different picture, culminating in a devastating revelation that stops you dead in your tracks. It is a truth so completely jaw-dropping, that when I finished the story I immediately went back to the beginning and read it all over again, to spot the subtle clues Sénès hides so cleverly within the text! A note here about the excellent translation by Alice Banks, which keeps you immersed so utterly in all the lovely misdirection and emotional melodrama conjured by Sénès in her original novel. I was floored!
There is no doubt that this is an unsettling book, which leaves images and ideas lingering long after you have turned the final page, but it is so rewarding. Sénès positively crams theme upon delicious theme into this story. The way she examines love, loss and obsession is superb, with all their messy associations with desire, expectation, and human frailty. She also explores synesthesia so vividly through Stan's experience of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch, particularly when it comes to memory and music. What a cracker!
June 25, 2025
Double Room is Anne Sénès' first literary novel and it's quite the debut. Despite its relative brevity, this elegy to love and grief is an exquisitely immersive read which left me reeling.
It tells the story of Stan, a composer whose unique relationship with sound and music resulted in a rather isolated childhood, with a family who loved but didn't understand him. It's only when he moves to London and falls in love with Liv at first sight, that he believes he has finally found true contentment. The alternating timeline of the novel, however, tells us that this state of fulfilment doesn't last. After Liv's tragic death, Stan and their daughter, Lisa move to Paris and to the Rabbit Hole, the house he inherited from his aunt, and where, like Alice, he grapples with the sense of his identity and becomes increasingly challenged by questions of self and reality.
It becomes evident that his love for Liv remains an obsession, despite being in a relationship with Babette who moved into the Rabbit Hole with her teenage son, Téo. Babette fulfils his need for physical companionship but he remains emotionally detached from her. Stan's palpable grief means it's easy to sympathise with the character but his often cold treatment of Babette is in marked contrast to his overwhelming obsession for Liv. Babette is perhaps the most likeable character here and this bittersweet story sees her gradually having to come to terms with what Stan is capable of bringing to the relationship.
As if to underline the intensity of his feelings for Liv, he has built Laïvely, an AI machine which has been programmed to sound like his deceased wife. As the novel progresses, however, Stan becomes aware that Laïvely's random sighs and responses are less reminders of a loving spouse than malevolent messages from a machine who may be more sentient that he believed when he first engineered her. A series of accidents amidst creepy laughter drives Stan to the brink of agonised despair which can only come from someone who has become trapped by their grief.
To fully understand the depth of his feelings for Liv, Anne Sénès allows us to follow their relationship from the heady days of first love, through to marriage and parenthood. Along the way, they connect with the people who become more like relatives than their real family and whose patronage helps bring them success in their careers. Anne Sénès lyrical descriptions evoke Stan's incredible synaesthesia which allow him to experience sounds as colours and tastes beautifully. Likewise, her portrayal of a mind unravelling is a mesmeric arrangement where apparent harmony gives way to crushing discord. Alice Banks deserves thanks here too for her work translating this complex, vibrant tale.
This poignant ode to the senses is unlike anything I've read before; I suspect it will be one of those books which will be experienced differently by every reader and will be dependent on their own emotions at the time of reading. It is undoubtedly an entrancingly poetic novel written with piercing insight into life and loss and a fascinating introduction to a new author.
It tells the story of Stan, a composer whose unique relationship with sound and music resulted in a rather isolated childhood, with a family who loved but didn't understand him. It's only when he moves to London and falls in love with Liv at first sight, that he believes he has finally found true contentment. The alternating timeline of the novel, however, tells us that this state of fulfilment doesn't last. After Liv's tragic death, Stan and their daughter, Lisa move to Paris and to the Rabbit Hole, the house he inherited from his aunt, and where, like Alice, he grapples with the sense of his identity and becomes increasingly challenged by questions of self and reality.
It becomes evident that his love for Liv remains an obsession, despite being in a relationship with Babette who moved into the Rabbit Hole with her teenage son, Téo. Babette fulfils his need for physical companionship but he remains emotionally detached from her. Stan's palpable grief means it's easy to sympathise with the character but his often cold treatment of Babette is in marked contrast to his overwhelming obsession for Liv. Babette is perhaps the most likeable character here and this bittersweet story sees her gradually having to come to terms with what Stan is capable of bringing to the relationship.
As if to underline the intensity of his feelings for Liv, he has built Laïvely, an AI machine which has been programmed to sound like his deceased wife. As the novel progresses, however, Stan becomes aware that Laïvely's random sighs and responses are less reminders of a loving spouse than malevolent messages from a machine who may be more sentient that he believed when he first engineered her. A series of accidents amidst creepy laughter drives Stan to the brink of agonised despair which can only come from someone who has become trapped by their grief.
To fully understand the depth of his feelings for Liv, Anne Sénès allows us to follow their relationship from the heady days of first love, through to marriage and parenthood. Along the way, they connect with the people who become more like relatives than their real family and whose patronage helps bring them success in their careers. Anne Sénès lyrical descriptions evoke Stan's incredible synaesthesia which allow him to experience sounds as colours and tastes beautifully. Likewise, her portrayal of a mind unravelling is a mesmeric arrangement where apparent harmony gives way to crushing discord. Alice Banks deserves thanks here too for her work translating this complex, vibrant tale.
This poignant ode to the senses is unlike anything I've read before; I suspect it will be one of those books which will be experienced differently by every reader and will be dependent on their own emotions at the time of reading. It is undoubtedly an entrancingly poetic novel written with piercing insight into life and loss and a fascinating introduction to a new author.
June 9, 2025
It’s easy to see why Karen Sullivan wanted to publish Anne Sénès’ Double Room. The writing is so impressive. Reading it felt like stepping into a sonata composed of grief, memory, and longing. The novel’s language is imbued with a musicality that mirrors the main protagonist, Stan’s, own synesthetic experiences, in which sounds evoke colours and emotions. Sénès’ prose dances between notes and hues, creating a tapestry that is at once vivid and haunting.
Stan’s love affair with Liv is portrayed as a harmonious duet, their love story unfolding with the elegance of a well-composed melody. In contrast, his connection with Babette lacks this musical depth, feeling more like a dissonant chord than a harmonious blend. This juxtaposition highlights Stan’s inability to move beyond his past, his heart perpetually tuned to the key of his lost love.
Living with his teenage daughter Lisa, Babette, a lifeguard, and her teenage son, Téo, Stan spends his days trying to recapture the lost sounds and smells of his love affair with Liv. The contrast between Liv, the ethereal make-up artist, and Babette, the sturdy lifeguard, is altogether too harsh to contemplate. Stan’s ability to compose falters in the absence of the sounds Liv once stirred in him and which Babette never can. As we follow Stan’s journeys with Liv, from London to Paris, reality crumbles, certainties fall like petals from faded flowers.
The house that Stan lives in, the Rabbit Hole, is so aptly named. Liv is the rabbit hole that Stan cannot climb from; destined forever to search for her musical voice, the invites you to consider.
And yet, as I travel alongside Liv and Stan, soaking in the headiness and pace of their love affair, something still feels discordant. Stan is not so much in love with Liv as obsessed with her and even after her death, that obsession remains strong. As you read this cleverly structured and all-consuming novel, you realise what’s coming. It makes perfect sense, yet it is shocking.
Stan’s subsequent relationship with Babette is driven by a need for sex and some companionship, but there’s no sense of a love affair indeed at times there is barely mutual affection.
Anne Sénès’ writing is exciting and surprising. The introduction of Laïvely, the AI tube imbued with Liv’s voice, adds a layer of complexity to Stan’s grief. This creation helps to blur the lines between reality and memory, offering comfort while simultaneously deepening Stan’s sorrow. Laïvely is both a way back to the past and equally, a torment. It is a warning about the dangers of clinging too tightly to the past.
Alice Banks’ translation captures all the fragility and musicality of this splendid work.
Verdict: Double Room is a deep and memorable exploration of love, loss, and the human desire to preserve what is, ultimately, fleeting. Sénès has created a narrative that resonates with emotional depth, inviting us to reflect on the melodies that linger in the silence of absence. This is beautiful, haunting, and evocative literary fiction to be cherished.
Stan’s love affair with Liv is portrayed as a harmonious duet, their love story unfolding with the elegance of a well-composed melody. In contrast, his connection with Babette lacks this musical depth, feeling more like a dissonant chord than a harmonious blend. This juxtaposition highlights Stan’s inability to move beyond his past, his heart perpetually tuned to the key of his lost love.
Living with his teenage daughter Lisa, Babette, a lifeguard, and her teenage son, Téo, Stan spends his days trying to recapture the lost sounds and smells of his love affair with Liv. The contrast between Liv, the ethereal make-up artist, and Babette, the sturdy lifeguard, is altogether too harsh to contemplate. Stan’s ability to compose falters in the absence of the sounds Liv once stirred in him and which Babette never can. As we follow Stan’s journeys with Liv, from London to Paris, reality crumbles, certainties fall like petals from faded flowers.
The house that Stan lives in, the Rabbit Hole, is so aptly named. Liv is the rabbit hole that Stan cannot climb from; destined forever to search for her musical voice, the invites you to consider.
And yet, as I travel alongside Liv and Stan, soaking in the headiness and pace of their love affair, something still feels discordant. Stan is not so much in love with Liv as obsessed with her and even after her death, that obsession remains strong. As you read this cleverly structured and all-consuming novel, you realise what’s coming. It makes perfect sense, yet it is shocking.
Stan’s subsequent relationship with Babette is driven by a need for sex and some companionship, but there’s no sense of a love affair indeed at times there is barely mutual affection.
Anne Sénès’ writing is exciting and surprising. The introduction of Laïvely, the AI tube imbued with Liv’s voice, adds a layer of complexity to Stan’s grief. This creation helps to blur the lines between reality and memory, offering comfort while simultaneously deepening Stan’s sorrow. Laïvely is both a way back to the past and equally, a torment. It is a warning about the dangers of clinging too tightly to the past.
Alice Banks’ translation captures all the fragility and musicality of this splendid work.
Verdict: Double Room is a deep and memorable exploration of love, loss, and the human desire to preserve what is, ultimately, fleeting. Sénès has created a narrative that resonates with emotional depth, inviting us to reflect on the melodies that linger in the silence of absence. This is beautiful, haunting, and evocative literary fiction to be cherished.
November 5, 2025
Novel set in LONDON / PARIS that deserves a wide readership
1990s. Stan is a promising French composer who has landed in London. He is working on a theatrical adaptation of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde and during rehearsals he meets Liv, with whom he falls deeply in love. They go on to have a daughter, Lisa.
In present day he is back in Paris living with Babette and her son Téo, as well as Laïvely, an AI machine he has been inspired to create. Liv, we know, tragically passed away and as the story unfolds, we discover how her death occurred. Daughter Lisa is a continuing presence in Stan’s life now but her general passive demeanour adds to the sense of his burgeoning madness of loss and mourning. She retreats into the shadows as he focusses more on Babette’s young son with his many distasteful habits.
The story moves alternately between the two timelines and the two relationships. Liv is described as ‘a complex symphony’ and Babette ‘a light jingle from the 1960s‘ – the latter is a chipper kind of woman who bounces through life without much depth (illustrated by her musical tastes). These descriptions serve to emphasises the emotional divide between these two big relationships in his life and because he hasn’t come to terms with Liv’s death, he acts out in his subsequent relationship – withholding of himself, struggling to engage and occasionally he has disparaging thoughts about Babette.
Laïvely is like an attachment figure – a comfort blanket – for him that keeps him unhealthily living in the past, a unit that flickers and flashes at him and occasionally emotes. His mind fabricates a voice emanating from it that sounds uncannily like Liv’s voice. It is like a larger Tamagotchi, he doesn’t like to leave it, he craves its proximity, its presence is soothing.
This is a terrific novel of grief and loss and what happens when the trauma becomes deeply buried and insurmountable. Moreover he has a condition that means he is very receptive to colours and sounds, and his experience of the world around him enriches the otherwise sad story with vivaciousness and perspicacity. There is a nice tiny (actually, large) twist at the end and I almost missed it, so, given the quality of the prose, it is worth reading this fairly short novel with great care.
This is a novel that stayed with me, the creative storyline has real depth and humanity. This novel deserves a wide readership.
And a big shout out to the cover designer for creating this extraordinarily eye catching book cover.
1990s. Stan is a promising French composer who has landed in London. He is working on a theatrical adaptation of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde and during rehearsals he meets Liv, with whom he falls deeply in love. They go on to have a daughter, Lisa.
In present day he is back in Paris living with Babette and her son Téo, as well as Laïvely, an AI machine he has been inspired to create. Liv, we know, tragically passed away and as the story unfolds, we discover how her death occurred. Daughter Lisa is a continuing presence in Stan’s life now but her general passive demeanour adds to the sense of his burgeoning madness of loss and mourning. She retreats into the shadows as he focusses more on Babette’s young son with his many distasteful habits.
The story moves alternately between the two timelines and the two relationships. Liv is described as ‘a complex symphony’ and Babette ‘a light jingle from the 1960s‘ – the latter is a chipper kind of woman who bounces through life without much depth (illustrated by her musical tastes). These descriptions serve to emphasises the emotional divide between these two big relationships in his life and because he hasn’t come to terms with Liv’s death, he acts out in his subsequent relationship – withholding of himself, struggling to engage and occasionally he has disparaging thoughts about Babette.
Laïvely is like an attachment figure – a comfort blanket – for him that keeps him unhealthily living in the past, a unit that flickers and flashes at him and occasionally emotes. His mind fabricates a voice emanating from it that sounds uncannily like Liv’s voice. It is like a larger Tamagotchi, he doesn’t like to leave it, he craves its proximity, its presence is soothing.
This is a terrific novel of grief and loss and what happens when the trauma becomes deeply buried and insurmountable. Moreover he has a condition that means he is very receptive to colours and sounds, and his experience of the world around him enriches the otherwise sad story with vivaciousness and perspicacity. There is a nice tiny (actually, large) twist at the end and I almost missed it, so, given the quality of the prose, it is worth reading this fairly short novel with great care.
This is a novel that stayed with me, the creative storyline has real depth and humanity. This novel deserves a wide readership.
And a big shout out to the cover designer for creating this extraordinarily eye catching book cover.
June 5, 2025
‘Double Room’ is a beguiling tale of happiness, acceptance, love and grief that will sweep you away with its exquisite prose. I picked this book up at 9am this morning and just inhaled it. You are transported deep within the protagonist's soul and feel every heightened emotion that ranges from bliss to despair. When I closed the back cover I felt drained emotionally but tingly in all the right places.
Basically this is a story of true love, about a family and the devastating emotions that result from the loss of a partner. This is a short book but it doesn't hold back from stripping back the noise and nonsense but highlight those moments which can pivotally change a life or story. It only deals with the people Stan and Liv love through the years and its all the more glorious for it. Well, one section does. This tale is told over two timelines and in two cities - London and Paris. London is the summer sun while Paris is the gloom of winter. This has the combined effect of an emotional workout for the reader and one that I would battle through again and again.
The main character Stan has synaesthesia and the pages are peppered with tastes of random foods and vibrant colours. This was such a unique way of writing and I have always been fascinated with this way of experiencing the world. Translated from French into English by Alice Banks you get the feeling that nothing was ‘lost in translation’! I ended up loving Stan and his endearing wee neck scarf, which I picture as being a tatty vintage Hermes tied at a jaunty angle.
For me I kind of tuned out the AI bit of the book as it was overshadowed by the intense emotions in both sections. I saw it as a crutch more than a defining character. A coping mechanism shall we say. But the symbolism of having his dead wife’s voice interrupting his new life was not lost on me.
This is a brilliant book - let me know if you pick it up.
June 14, 2025
This is a beautifully written, and translated, book and I know that my words will not be able to do this the justice it deserves. Written in dual timeline, London in the late 1990’s and Paris in the present, this is a tragic love story. The main protagonist is Stan, a young French composer who moves to London where he meets and falls deeply in love with makeup artist Liv. But their happiness doesn’t last. This is a relatively short book at around 200 pages but there is a lot packed into those pages.
Briefly, after Liv dies Stan returns to France with his daughter Lisa. He moves into a house left to him by an Aunt. In a new relationship Stan remains haunted by his past, which is not helped by another presence in his life. Laïvely an AI machine he built himself that he has made to sound like Liv, and it seems to be taking on a life of its own.
Stan is an interesting character, always a doyen of music, he is also a synesthete and his heightened senses create a world of full of smells and colours particularly around his music and his memories. This is a disquieting read, there is a mystery surrounding Stan’s marriage, and a reveal that shocked me, although in retrospect there were some hints that I just hadn’t picked up on. A book about love, obsession and the grief that comes with loss. A book I may read again as I’m not sure I picked up on all the nuances within. Emotional.
4.5⭐️
Briefly, after Liv dies Stan returns to France with his daughter Lisa. He moves into a house left to him by an Aunt. In a new relationship Stan remains haunted by his past, which is not helped by another presence in his life. Laïvely an AI machine he built himself that he has made to sound like Liv, and it seems to be taking on a life of its own.
Stan is an interesting character, always a doyen of music, he is also a synesthete and his heightened senses create a world of full of smells and colours particularly around his music and his memories. This is a disquieting read, there is a mystery surrounding Stan’s marriage, and a reveal that shocked me, although in retrospect there were some hints that I just hadn’t picked up on. A book about love, obsession and the grief that comes with loss. A book I may read again as I’m not sure I picked up on all the nuances within. Emotional.
4.5⭐️
June 12, 2025
Stan is a composer. His wife Liv, the love of his life, was a make-up artist. They met and married in London and lived there with their daughter Lisa until Liv’s tragic death. He and Lisa now live in a house in Paris which Stan inherited from an aunt; they share it with his current partner Babette and her son. The book switches back and forth between Stan’s previous life in London, and his current life in Paris. An additional, and increasingly important, character in the Paris timeline is Laïvely, a kind of AI assistant created by Stan to replicate Liv’s voice. Laïvely seems to become a progressively more intrusive and even malevolent force in his life, yet we are not sure if this is really happening, or a product of Stan’s imagination. The conclusion of the book implies but does not definitively confirm what really happened in London.
I found the book enchanting and intriguing; I was swept up in the descriptions of Stan’s life in London and Paris, and his view of the world through its colours and smells. I loved the lyrical writing style; hats off to the translator, as for the most part it was easy to forget that this book was not originally written in English. Thoroughly recommended.
I found the book enchanting and intriguing; I was swept up in the descriptions of Stan’s life in London and Paris, and his view of the world through its colours and smells. I loved the lyrical writing style; hats off to the translator, as for the most part it was easy to forget that this book was not originally written in English. Thoroughly recommended.
June 12, 2025
Double Room is a story of love, passion, loss, and grief, written in exquisite prose. Some descriptions are truly lyrical and poetic. I fell in love with the narrative right from the start.
This book goes between the past and the present.
In the present, we have Stan, a French musician, now living in Paris with his daughter, Lisa, his partner, Babette, and her son and Stan’s stepson, Theo. There is a strange dynamic in the house, as Stan and Lisa are bound by grief. The loss of Liv, Stan’s wife and Lisa’s mother, is still palpable, despite a number of years having passed.
After Liv died, Stan created Laïvely, an automated house assistant. She’s like an Alexa, but more intrusive and rather unsettling.
These chapters are interwoven with the past and how Stan met Liv in London. She was a make-up artist for the stage, and he was a musician set to compose for the new adaptations of The Picture of Dorian Gray. When Stan saw Liv, it was love at first sight.
We don’t know how Liv died until the very last pages of the book. The ending was sublime and certainly worth the wait!
I definitely recommend this book.
This book goes between the past and the present.
In the present, we have Stan, a French musician, now living in Paris with his daughter, Lisa, his partner, Babette, and her son and Stan’s stepson, Theo. There is a strange dynamic in the house, as Stan and Lisa are bound by grief. The loss of Liv, Stan’s wife and Lisa’s mother, is still palpable, despite a number of years having passed.
After Liv died, Stan created Laïvely, an automated house assistant. She’s like an Alexa, but more intrusive and rather unsettling.
These chapters are interwoven with the past and how Stan met Liv in London. She was a make-up artist for the stage, and he was a musician set to compose for the new adaptations of The Picture of Dorian Gray. When Stan saw Liv, it was love at first sight.
We don’t know how Liv died until the very last pages of the book. The ending was sublime and certainly worth the wait!
I definitely recommend this book.
July 8, 2025
This is a book that has so much packed within its pages.
Love, loss, grief, pain, past and future all entwine to create a beautiful novel.
Stan has lost the love of his life and he has a new partner, a new life. But his new life contains of an almost AI love affair with his dead wife.
I can’t help feeling for Stan, for Babette who should have his love but feels to me like a second hand replacement.
The prose is beautiful, heart rending and will tear you apart. Stan has such deep rooted grief that all he wants is the past and his love of his life. This shows a man in all his many guises. Stan seems to in the scenes set in the past, live in a world that is more ethereal, the sights, smells and sounds but not necessarily the reality.
This was a lovely read, achingly beautiful and full of a quiet passionate love for someone you read about and wonder how much Stan built Liv into a person nobody could ever match. With the AI elements it does give a little speculative fiction, too.
An absolutely lovely read. Highly recommended.
With thanks to Anne Cater, the publisher and the author for the advanced reading copy of this book.
Love, loss, grief, pain, past and future all entwine to create a beautiful novel.
Stan has lost the love of his life and he has a new partner, a new life. But his new life contains of an almost AI love affair with his dead wife.
I can’t help feeling for Stan, for Babette who should have his love but feels to me like a second hand replacement.
The prose is beautiful, heart rending and will tear you apart. Stan has such deep rooted grief that all he wants is the past and his love of his life. This shows a man in all his many guises. Stan seems to in the scenes set in the past, live in a world that is more ethereal, the sights, smells and sounds but not necessarily the reality.
This was a lovely read, achingly beautiful and full of a quiet passionate love for someone you read about and wonder how much Stan built Liv into a person nobody could ever match. With the AI elements it does give a little speculative fiction, too.
An absolutely lovely read. Highly recommended.
With thanks to Anne Cater, the publisher and the author for the advanced reading copy of this book.
July 3, 2025
This is the story of a fascinating, yet broken man; of tremendous grief, loss and losing touch with reality. Gentle and lyrical, Double Room at times bursts with hope and at others, is full of despair.
I’ve always been fascinated with people with synaesthesia, and Anne Sénès writes beautifully about Stan’s form of this neurological condition, making the entire read a sensory experience as we experience the sounds, colours and tastes of his past and current life.
Stan forms an unhealthy attachment to the AI machine he created. He developed Laively seemingly to remind him of his late wife, Liv, the love of his life, trying to reproduce the notes of her voice. Now, however, the machine has started to interfere in his life, and is turning into something almost evil and violent.
After Liv’s death, Stan moves from London back to France, full of an immense interior solitude which he tries to fill with his new lover, Babette, and her son whom he dislikes. But the relationship is cracking, as is Stan’s hold on reality.
I’ve always been fascinated with people with synaesthesia, and Anne Sénès writes beautifully about Stan’s form of this neurological condition, making the entire read a sensory experience as we experience the sounds, colours and tastes of his past and current life.
Stan forms an unhealthy attachment to the AI machine he created. He developed Laively seemingly to remind him of his late wife, Liv, the love of his life, trying to reproduce the notes of her voice. Now, however, the machine has started to interfere in his life, and is turning into something almost evil and violent.
After Liv’s death, Stan moves from London back to France, full of an immense interior solitude which he tries to fill with his new lover, Babette, and her son whom he dislikes. But the relationship is cracking, as is Stan’s hold on reality.
July 6, 2025
A story of one man and how his past life haunts him and affects the present, and his current relationships, makes for an ingenious read. This will have you turning page after page to find out the links and the reality between what he has experienced and what he has created in Laïvely , an AI machine, which personally gives me the creeps.
I found myself questioning Stan’s sanity, the disturbing nature of Laïvely and Babette’s ability to initially accept this.
The storyline draws you deeper into the black hole that Stan finds himself being pulled into all the while building up an unease as to where the narrative is going. There were so many times when I wanted to tell him to stop and look what he had in the present rather than clinging to Liv through Laively, but obviously he wouldn't listen and it would change the plot.
I didn’t find this an easy read, though I did find it an intriguing one and hence I couldn’t put it down until I had finished it.
I found myself questioning Stan’s sanity, the disturbing nature of Laïvely and Babette’s ability to initially accept this.
The storyline draws you deeper into the black hole that Stan finds himself being pulled into all the while building up an unease as to where the narrative is going. There were so many times when I wanted to tell him to stop and look what he had in the present rather than clinging to Liv through Laively, but obviously he wouldn't listen and it would change the plot.
I didn’t find this an easy read, though I did find it an intriguing one and hence I couldn’t put it down until I had finished it.
May 30, 2025
Stan is hired to compose the music for a new adaptation of Dorian Gray and life is good with his wife Liv and daughter Lisa. Set in London and France this is quite a moving story. After losing Liv in a tragic accident he moves to France to live in a house left to him by an aunt where he creates a A1 device with his wifes voice. He meets Babette but is unable to commit 100% to their relationship which can happen when you lose your soulmate I really enjoyed it but the ending as left me baffled not sure what to believe now it's very confusing.
June 17, 2025
Absolutely stunning and worthy of all the praise it receives.
It's not very often I find myself moved as much by a work of literature, but Stan's pain fast became mine.
Beautifully written and translated perfectly from its original French, Double Room is an evocative and beguiling tale of love and loss.
It's not very often I find myself moved as much by a work of literature, but Stan's pain fast became mine.
Beautifully written and translated perfectly from its original French, Double Room is an evocative and beguiling tale of love and loss.
July 8, 2025
This is a book that deals with it all. Grief,love, passion and everything in between. I didn’t think I would enjoy this as much as I did. This book draws you in and doesn’t let go till the end. Loved the main character Stan and most people I know that have read the book also think the same. Well written.
January 17, 2026
Chilling, heartbreaking and tender. This book felt like a love letter to the good, bad and ugly of relationships. It shone a spotlight on the humanity in both loving and hurting. A great example of how much is said in what is not stated.
May 25, 2025
A truly haunting story, detailing the heart rending , grief filled, existence of a man losing touch with the realities of his life. Devastatingly raw.
November 17, 2025
4 stars! SUCH an interesting premise, it's a short read and kept me hooked throughout. Perfect length and gorgeous writing.
July 26, 2025
Discover the locations in the novel here
This is a heart-warming and moving novel about grief and how we respond to it and deal with it.
When a man's wife dies, he fixes an AI tube imbued with her voice. Having lost loved ones myself, quite recently, this got me thinking. But it also horrified me as I could only see this as torment. I followed Stan's journey closely and it was very sad but very raw and real to see how he coped with life after Liv's death.
This novel is so moving and congrats to the translator as this reads very well - it's real, emotional and that sense of anger, of confusion, of wanting to do anything to keep someone alive in any way possible, is just heartbreaking.
Haunting, memorable and oh so emotional!
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