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De onbekende vrouw

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Na een pijnlijke scheiding en de dood van haar moeder besluit de jonge arts Pascale Fontanel haar leven radicaal te veranderen. Zeer tegen de zin van haar vader en broer verlaat ze Parijs om op het oude landgoed Peyrolles in het zuiden van Frankrijk te gaan wonen. Daar, in het statige huis met de enorme tuin heeft Pascale haar eenzame jeugd doorgebracht. Op zolder vindt ze het trouwboekje van haar overleden moeder. Camille blijkt eerder gehuwd geweest te zijn en nog een dochter te hebben. Pascale is vastbesloten het mysterieuze verleden van haar moeder te ontrafelen.

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

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About the author

Françoise Bourdin

132 books77 followers
Françoise Bourdin was born listening to opera. Her parents, both opera singers, helped her to develop an appreciation for strong characters and destinies, and for the music of words. As a teenager, she discovered horseback riding and it became her exclusive hobby. She dedicated her teens to this passion and to reading the works of classical authors that she discovered in her father’s huge library. Bourdin started to write short stories when she was very young. Her first novel was published by Editions Julliard when she was only twenty. Writing became the most important thing in her life and her second novel, two years later, was adapted for TV.

Her fiction describes family stories, secrets, and passions. She values brave characters who face life boldly and never give up when confronted with adversity. Since 1994, she has written thirty books, three of which have been adapted for television. Her readership continues to grow with each novel.

Bourdin has two daughters and lives in a beautiful home in Normandy. She writes every day, always with the same pleasure, the most beautifully human and moving stories. She knows how to express our deepest emotions and to write stories that resemble our own lives.

Françoise Bourdin, née en 1952 à Paris, est un écrivain français.
Elle est mariée à un médecin et a deux filles, Fabienne, née 1981, et Frédérique, née 1982.

Elle commence à écrire des nouvelles à 16 ans. Elle publie son premier roman en 1972, Les Soleils mouillés. En 1973, son second roman, De vagues herbes hautes est choisi par Josée Dayan pour réaliser son premier téléfilm — avec comme interprète Laurent Terzieff. Depuis, elle a publié près d'une trentaine de livres.
Elle est aussi scénariste de profession pour la télévision, beaucoup de ses romans ont été adaptés à la télévision.

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5 stars
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Profile Image for Anna Plishak.
351 reviews5 followers
May 12, 2023
Хороша історія для відпочинку. Про кохання, сімейні таємниці і пошуки щастя. Вона не претендує на звання шедевру. В ній чимало стереотипів та кліше. Але читаючи, розумієш, що книга душевна, справжня. Кожен персонаж сприймається, як хороший знайомий, на зустріч з яким чекаєш із нетерпінням (особливо це стосується найкращої подруги головної героїні Паскаль - Аріани, яка на рівному місці здатна організувати свято).

У книзі є як трагічні, так і радісні моменти. Відповіді на усі питання лежать на поверхні, але цікаво спостерігати, як до них підходить сама Паскаль, розплутуючи величезний клубок родинних таємниць.

Книга залишила приємні враження, оповиті французьким шармом.
Profile Image for Laura Blondeel.
64 reviews4 followers
December 31, 2020
Vlot geschreven en ik houd van verhalen die zich afspelen rond een landgoed. Inhoudelijk echter toch iets te zwak. Niet de moeite om ooit nog eens te herlezen bijvoorbeeld.
1,894 reviews50 followers
December 9, 2014
Pascale is a successful pneumologist working at a prestigious hospital in Paris. But recently she has experienced two losses. First she divorced her husband Samuel over their inability to have a child. Second, her mother just died. Beautiful, silent Camille, the daughter of a French officer and a Vietnamese woman, was a devoted mother, but ultimately fell victim to a quiet melancholy that no one could explain or remedy. The funeral takes place in Albi, the Southern town where Pascale spent the first 10 years of her life. When revisiting her former home in Peyrolles, Pascale is seized by the desire to live in the house again. Her ex-husband, who now lives close by, helps her to deal with the strange resistance her father and brother put up against this plan. Pascale finds a new position in a hospital in Toulouse, but has to deal with the irrational hostility of her new boss. She also starts to realize that her family was not as beloved in Peyrolles as she had remembered. But she tries to focus on making the old house habitable, even inviting a childhood friend to room with her. She also meets a new admirer, but is constantly aware of the romantic tension between her and Samuel, who is now dating the clingy Marianne. Then she comes across an old "carnet de famille", the French document on which marriages, births and deaths are recorded, and realizes that there is indeed a gigantic family secret. She sets out to set her life in order : her job, her love life, and... the secret.

The marketing slogan for Francoise Bourdin's books is "Des histoires qui nous ressemblent", which means something like "Stories that look like us". I think that is a good way of putting it. Her heroines go through familiar struggles : love, job, money, divided loyalties. Often there is also the attachment to a family house or business. Her heroines are neither whiny nor invincible, not wimps and not superwomen. It's fun to identify with these young women for a couple of hours, while reading these books. And as opposed to Katherine Pancol or Musso, for instance, whose books are very heavily influenced by AMerican/British Chick lit, I find these books very French. Not just the fact that the protagonists love to eat and drink French specialties (I think there should be a Francoise Bourdin cookbook!) but also the love for the place where one grew up. Her heroes and heroines love their home town and often go back there in middle adulthood, sometimes to save a floundering family business.

Light reading of the better sort!
Profile Image for Rita.
1 review
May 31, 2012
Reading the Dutch edition, and I really like it.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews

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