Soleil

by Vendela Vida

Eleven-year-old Gabriele is taken for a night out by friend of the family Soleil, and finds herself somewhat disillusioned by previously interesting aspects of adulthood.

zine

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Vendela Vida is the award-winning author of four books, including Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name and The Lovers, and a founding editor of The Believer magazine. She is also the co-editor of Always Apprentices, a collection of interviews with writers, and Confidence, or the Appearance of Confidence, a collection of interviews with musicians. As a fellow at the Sundance Labs, she developed Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name into a script, which received the Sundance Institute/Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award. Two of Vida’s novels have been New York Times Notable Books of the year, and she is the winner of the Kate Chopin Award, given to a writer whose female protagonist chooses an unconventional path. She lives in Northern California with her husband and two children, and since 2002 has served on the board of 826 Valencia, a nonprofit writing and tutoring lab for youth.

Reviews

[Jamie Felton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a small press short story that I picked up and read in ten minutes. Vida has an amazing gift in that she can perfectly describe a character so accurately you feel as though every move or action this character makes is a revelation into his or her psyche. It is the best kind of story where nothing much happens on the surface, rather it all teeming below in a churning mass of unspoken feelings and motives. In getting to know her characters, you are inevitably getting to know the worst and best human traits.