The Foundling

by Agnès Desarthe

From the author of Chez Moi, a tenderly drawn and hauntingly beautiful novel of loss and loneliness, friendship and love.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, France

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 2, 2010

About the author

Agnès Desarthe est un écrivain et traductrice français. Elle écrit aussibien des livres pour adultes que de livres pour enfants.

Agnès Desarthe is a French writer and translator. She writes both for adults and for children.

Reviews

[The Reading Bibliophile · Rating 5 out of 5]

Une autre relecture pendant le confinement qui s'achève petit à petit.
Personnages touchants, histoire triste et tragique à la fois.

[Pili · Rating 2 out of 5]

No entendí nada... ni la trama, ni la intención de los personajes ni mucho menos el "mensaje".

[Lyndis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have just finished this book and found it very frustrating! I enjoyed the mood, the dream like quality, the prose. However you never find out what led him to be a foundling, what happened to his real parents, what led him to be in the woods in the first place. I was left wanting more, a part 2 to finish off the story - what do others think ?

[Yves Gounin · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Dans la nuit brune", c'est "Un secret" en moins bien
Jérôme, la cinquantaine, agent immobilier, divorcé, vit dans une ville de province sans histoire. Sa fille a un amoureux. Quand celui-ci trouve la mort dans un accident de moto, la vie de Jérôme va s'emballer. Un détective privé homosexuel va s'enticher de lui. Une cliente écossaise de son agence aussi. Et les circonstances mystérieuses de sa naissance (Jérôme est un enfant trouvé) vont peut-être s'éclairer. Ou peut-être pas.
C'est bien là le problème : Agnès Desarthe ouvre des pistes alléchantes mais ne les referme pas toujours. Il y est question du génocide juif, de l'amour familial, des choix que l'on fait dans sa vie, ou qu'on a la paresse de ne pas faire ... C'est beaucoup pour un petit livre.
Il y avait peut-être la substance à une œuvre plus ambitieuse. Malheureusement Agnès Desarthe est restée au milieu du gué.

[Alison]

this could have been a better book. man in troubled state after divorce from wife and sudden death of daughter's boyfriend, is also haunted by his early start in life -spent early years in the woods cared for by young mother and then finds an older couple who take him in. they too have a secret. a rather likeable local retired police inspector decides to investigate all the mystery We needed more of this chap than the depressive and introverted Jerome. the mystery is less than the gripping though sad and the whole thing becomes a bit of a jumble.

[Delaune Aurelia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Atmosphère mystérieuse, personnages attachants, lecture qui coule toute seule. Mais on finit le livre un peu frustré : aucune réponse sur la question qui alimente tout le récit. Qui est-il ??

[Ginni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jerome is the foundling of the title; as a little boy of 3 or 4, he mysteriously appeared from the woods near the small French town where he now lives. He was adopted by a couple who are mysteries in themselves. Now Jerome is 56, father of a troubled teenage girl, Marina, who has just lost her lover in a motorbike accident.
This is in many ways a mystery; who were Jerome's real parents? What is the story behind his adopted parents? What has happened to a teenage girl who has gone missing locally? and will Jerome succeed in creating friendships for himself, or a happy relationship to replace his unsuccessful marriage to Paula? The introduction of the retired bisexual detective, Alexandre Cousinet, and the eccentric Scots woman, Vilno Smith, who both fall for Jerome, adds a piquant tension to the story.
Jerome is a rather fey but likeable character, who appears an unusual candidate for his profession of estate agent. The prose style is quite lyrical and I enjoyed the story, and I may look for Desarthe's other translated work, Chez Moi.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a gentle story following a man's attempts to rediscover his own past following the accidental death of his daughter's boyfriend. The story draws on some powerful images of to reveal a distressing family history of loss. This didn't work as well for me as The Son did earlier in the year, possibly because I was all to aware that that story was semi-autobiographical whereas this is purely fictional, however this is still a lovely little find.

[Aude · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would like to rate this book, but I can't for the life of me remember the story. I read it about a year ago, and when I read the back cover now, all it draws is a blank. I guess it says for itself, this book is totally forgettable. It's not bad enough that I would remember it, but it's not good enough either. I guess it deserves an "it was okay" then.

[The Book · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my type of thing - I found this dull and a bit of a chore to get through. Nothing interesting happened, and the prose was bland and unmemorable. It wasn't bad (in the sense of poor writing), just not good.

[Trudy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short novel, exploring a man's questions about his own identify, having been found alone in the woods at age 3. It also explores how relationships between people change following a tragic event. The poetic writing made this lovely to read.

[Béatrice]

Je n'ai pas noté ce que j'en pensais!

[Khadija Lemkhoudem · Rating 4 out of 5]

J'ai adoré! Et puis la personnalité de Jerome est tout ce que j'aime. L'histoire est tres bien ecrite, je n ai rien vu venir !!