Beside the Sea

by Véronique Olmi, Adriana Hunter (Translator)

A single mother takes her two sons on a trip to the seaside. They stay in a hotel, drink hot chocolate, and go to the funfair. She wants to protect them from an uncaring and uncomprehending world. She knows that it will be the last trip for her boys.

Beside the Sea is a haunting and thought-provoking story about how a mother's love for her children can be more dangerous than the dark world she is seeking to keep at bay. It's a hypnotizing look at an unhinged mind and the cold society that produced it. With language as captivating as the story that unfolds, Véronique Olmi creates an intimate portrait of madness and despair that won't soon be forgotten.

Genres: Fiction, France, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Novella, Mental Health, French Literature

121 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 2001

About the author

Véronique Olmi is a French playwright and novelist. She won the Prix Alain-Fournier emerging artist award for her 2001 novella Bord de Mer. It has since been translated into several European languages. Olmi has published a dozen plays and half a dozen novels.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[KamRun · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتابی که مشتری به من فروخت

کتاب را برعکس همیشه، یکی از مشتری‌ها به من معرفی کرد. کمی از کتاب گفت، یک نسخه خرید و رفت. پشت جلد را که خواندم فهمیدم داستان بر اساس واقعیت نوشته شده و ناخوداگاه یاد ماجرای "مامور قطع آب" افتادم که دوراس در کتاب حیات مجسم نقل می‌کند: مامور آب میاید و آب خانه‌ای را به خاطر عدم پرداخت قبض قطع می‌کند و در پایان همان روز، زن و شوهر، دو فرزند کم سن و سال خود را برمی‌دارند، هر کدام یکی را در آغوش می‌گیرد و روی ریل قطار می‌خوابند تا قطار سر برسد و به زندگی‌ای که تنها نام زندگی را یدک می‌کشد پایان دهد. کتاب "کنار دریا" نیز ماجرای مشابهی را روایت می‌کند. داستان زندگی خانواده‌ای از طبقه بی‌سقف، که همیشه در حاشیه قرار می‌گیرند و از آن‌ها یادی نمی‌شود، مگر در حاشیه جراید و صفحه حوادث روزنامه‌ها، آن هم پس از مرگی فجیع

داستان طبقه‌ی بی‌سقف

داستان از نقطه‌ای شروع می‌شود که زن به همراه دو فرزندش (کوین و استن، 5 و 9 ساله) در اتوبوسی سرد و قراضه نشسته‌اند. نویسنده هیچ پیش‌زمینه‌ای از زن و زندگی‌اش پیش روی خواننده نمی‌گذارد. فقط به مقصد اتوبوس اشاره می‌شود: ساحل دریا. گویا همین مقصد است که اهمیت دارد، نه گذشته‌ی او در دو بعد زمانی و مکانی. گویا قرار نیست دیگر به گذشته بازگشت. سرنخ‌های متعددی از همان آغاز داستان وجود دارد مبنی بر آنکه، این یک سفر بی‌بازگشت است
هوای سرد، بارانی و تاریک از همان آغاز اتمسفر حاکم بر داستان را مشخص می‌کند. سخن زن مبنی بر اینکه "خوشبختانه کسی ما را حین سوار شدن به اتوبوس ندید" نیز در همان ابتدای داستان آب پاکی را روی دست خواننده می‌ریزد و مشخص می‌سازد که گویی زن به همراه فرزندانش از چیزی در حال فرار است. اما چه چیز؟ این گره اصلی داستان است که در میانه‌ی داستان باز شده و ثقل روایت را از روی تعلیق، به روی حقیقت ماجرا، نه تنها چگونگی، بلکه چرایی واقعه منتقل می‌کند
هشدار: ادامه متن فاش کننده داستان است
در جای‌جای داستان مشخص می‌شود که زن حال و روز خوشی ندارد. ناخوشی زن از جنس ملال حاکم بر طبقه‌ی بورژوای اجتماع نیست. احتمالا زن به افسردگی ماژور مبتلاست که نشانه‌های بالینی بیماری را می‌توان به شرح زیر در او دید
خلق افسرده: دنیا در نظر زن تیره و تار است و بی‌دلیل و به دفعات، اشک از چشم‌هایش جاری می‌شود. او در مقابل مشکلات، هرچند جزیی، احساس ناتوانی می‌کند
اختلالات خواب شامل خواب نامنظم، ناآرام، بی‌خوابی‌های شبانه : قبل از ساعت ده نمی‌توانم هیچ‌کاری بکنم. شب‌ها خوب نمی‌خوابم. نگرانی، نمی‌توانم بگویم از چه چیزی. انگار چیزی روی من فشار می‌آورد. دقیقا انگار کسی روی من نشسته باشد
احساس بی‌ارزشی یا احساس گناه: او مکررا تصور می‌کند که مادر خوبی نیست. در جایی اشاره می‌کند که به موقع به مدرسه نمی‌رسد و نمی‌تواند کودکانش را به مدرسه ببرد و برای بردنشان، دیر می‌رسد، مثل مادران خوبِ دیگر نیست. در جای دیگری هم اشاره می‌کند که وقتی کوین را برای اولین بار در مدرسه می‌گذارد، کوین با قیافه منزجر گفته بود نمی‌خواهی بروی؟ و یکی از مادرها از شنیدن حرفش خندیده بود
افکار خودکشی: زن به طور مکرر به افکار سیاه و غیرقابل کنترلی که دارد اشاره می‌کند. افکاری که گویی او را به نقاط عمیق پرتگاه پرتاب می‌کنند.
در افسردگی ماژور، 4 عامل خطرساز نقش فعال دارند: عوامل مزاجی و خلقی، عوامل محیطی، عامل ژنتیک و فیزیولوژیک و عوامل تغییر دهنده سیر بیماری. حتی اگر افسردگی به خودی خود، موجب وقوع چنین جنایتی شده باشد (که چنین نیست و بنابر شواهد، صراحتا می‌توان عامل محیطی، یعنی عدم امنیت مالی و روانی را عامل سوق‌دهنده به سوی چنین تصمیمی اعلام کرد)، چه چیزی باعث می‌شود که یک مادر، دو فرزند خردسال خود را چنین به قتل برساند؟

تفکر غالب علمی در نظامی که تا خرخره در نظام سرمایه‌داری غرق شده، چنین اعلام می‌کند که نزاع و خونریزی معضل تاریخی انسان بوده و همواره ضعیف به نفع قوی از صحنه روزگار محو شود (داروین)؛ که انسان گرگ انسان است (هابز)؛ که سرنوشت محتومِ بشر، افزایش بی‌رویه جمعیت و در پی آن، بدبختی و قحطی گسترده خواهد بود و در این مورد کوچکترین کاری نمی‌توان انجام داد. هرگونه کمک به فقرا مانند غذا دادن به کبوترهای لندن است. آن‌ها پس از سیر شدن، تولید مثل کرده و دوباره به چرخه فقر بازمی‌گردند. بر این مبنا، فقر و بیچارگی طبقات پایین اجتماع کاملا اجتناب ناپذیر و در عین حال مفید است، زیرا عامل بازدارنده افزایش جمعیت محسوب می‌گردد ( توماس مالتوس). گزاره‌های این سه اندیشمند شاید به تنهایی درست باشد، اما استدلال‌ها و نتیجه‌گیری‌هایشان بشدت معیوب است و متدولوژی آن‌ها به کل رد می‌شود. یافته‌های علمی جدید (که در نطفه خفه‌شان کرده‌اند) در جوامع حیوانی شاهدی قوی بر این ادعاست. ردیه‌ای مختصر بر استدلال‌هایی از این قبیل را می‌توان در کتاب "چهار بدفهمی در باب سرشت انسان" خواند.

زن نیز به خوبی با چنین قانونی آشناست. او هنگامی که کودکانش را به ساحل می‌برد، جز خشم طبعیت چیزی نمی‌بیند. دریا نه آبی، بلکه خاکستری رنگ و خروشان است و موج‌ها چنان‌اند که گویی قصد جان کودکان او را کرده‌اند. کمی بعد، هنگامی که در کافه‌ای محقر چند مرد مزاحم کودکان می‌شوند، زن می‌گوید: بچه‌هایم خشم دریا را دیده بودند و حالا قرار است کینه دنیا را هم ببیند. در چنین شرایطی زن از هر سو با تهدید مواجه می‌شود (به گفته خودش، تنها مردی که با او به خوبی رفتار کرده ، فرزندش استن است). نه طبعیت و نه اجتماع، ماحصلی جز خطر برای او ندارند (صحنه‌ی سرسام‌اور شهربازی شاهدی بر این مدعاست) . نتیجه آن می‌شود که زن علاوه سودازدگی که حاصل باختن دنیا و از خودبیگانگی که حاصل نظم طبقاتی موجود است، در افق بی‌کران پیش روی خویش احساس تنهایی شدید می‌کند: او از پنجره به بیرون زل می‌زند و مردم را در خانه‌هایشان می‌بیند که خوشبختند و از درد او به دور، لابد گاهی در عالم خیال خودش را هم در آن میان تصور می‌کند. برای او در تقابل با خوشبختی دیگران، این پرسش مطرح می‌شود که این‌همه پول از کجا می‌آید؟ همه پول دارتد و هرچیزی می‌خواهند می‌خرند. مگر او چه چیزی از دنیا خواسته است؟ حالا می‌توان به پرسش نخستین متن، جوابی درخور داد، که زن از تنهایی، بی‌کسی و بدبختی ناشی از فقر فرار می‌کند. اما فغان، که آسمان برای طبقه‌ی بی‌سقف در همه‌جا یک‌رنگ است و حتی برف و باران که برکت و هدیه آسمان نامیده شده، برای اینان چون تف و آب دهان تلقی می‌شود. آری، برای طبقه بی‌سقف خبری از تاویل رمانتیک برف و باران و آسمان ابری و هوای دو نفره نیست. در چنین موقعیتی، زن راهی نمی‌بیند جز آن که به قانون برساخته‌ای که بر طبیعت حاکم کرده‌اند تن بدهد.

چرا باید ادامه داد حتی وقتی کفش‌هایشان دیگر نمی‌توانستند دنبالشان کنند

لطفا هیئت منصفه قیام کنند: شما در مورد زنی که دو پسر خردسال خود را با شکم‌های گرسنه در خواب، بوسیله فشار شی نرم بر صورت (بالشت) خفه کرده است چه حکمی می‌دهید؟
زن مجبور است دو پسر را به تنهایی در فقر بزرگ کند. شوهر زن به دلایلی نامعلوم در زندگی‌اش حضور ندارد و کودک دوم را هم ناخواسته از مردی ناشناس باردار شده که مسئولیت پدری خود را هرگز بر عهده نگرفته و از این رو کوین حتی پدرش را به قیافه هم نمی‌شناسد. اما اشتباه نکنید. زن نه به مواد مخدر اعتیاد دارد و نه لب به نوشیدنی الکلی می‌زند. در طول داستان نیز بنظر نمی‌رسد زن حتی سیگار بکشد. شواهد و قرائن نشان می‌دهد که زن در عین حال که بیمار است، بی‌مسئولیت نیست
پس لطفا انگشت اتهام را 180 درجه بچرخانید و به سوی خودِ نوعی یا اجتماع و نظم حاکم بر آن بگیرید. نظامی مردسالار که در آن زن ابژه‌ی جنسی است (شاهد داستان: آزارهای جنسی در کافه‌ای که کودکانش را شب پیش از قتل می‌برد) و مرد سرِ خانواده تلقی شده و خانواده‌ی بدون مرد، بی‌سرپرست نام می‌گیرد، در ساختاری که همه چیز بر پاشنه‌ی پول، آن هم از جنس اسکناس درشتِ تانخورده می‌چرخد، جایی که همه‌ی ارزش‌ها بر پول مبتنی است: بدون پول نه تنها بدون سرپناه، بدون پوشش و گرسنه و در یک کلام، محروم از کلیه حقوق اجتماعی خود می‌مانی، بلکه تحقیرها هم چه در کلام و چه در کردار و حتی نگاه به سوی تو روانه می‌شود. چون در چنین جامعه‌ای تو خود مقصر فقر و عامل بدبختی‌ خویش قلمداد می‌شوی (رجوع کنید به عنوان کتابِ آن نویسنده بی‌همه‌چیز، رندی گیج که "چرا احمق، بیمار و بی‌پول هستید"). راه حل در چنین نظم طبقاتی آکنده از ظلم چیست؟ زن به گواه داستان، خود را فدای فرزندانش کرده است. تمام کمک‌خرج ناچیزی که از سیستم حمایت دولتی می‌گیرد را خرج فرزندانش می‌کند. لباسش مندرس و کفش‌هایش پاره هستند. سه، چهار دندان ندارد و باقی دندان‌هایش هم پوسینده‌اند. پیوسته گرسنه است. پس رستگاری چگونه حاصل می‌شود؟ یا سیستم را نابود کن، یا دست به انتحار خود بزن. زن چون چاره‌ای برای عملی کردن گزینه نخست نمی‌بیند، کمر به انتحار و قتل خانواده خود می‌بندد تا شاید مرهمی برای گرسنگی‌ها و بی‌پناهی فرزندان خود بیابد. او عاجزانه آخرین تلاشش را می‌کند تا دنیایی بهتر برای کودکانش بسازد: ما دیگر اینطور خیس نمی‌شوم. دیگر نمی‌گذارم، قول می‌دهم. دیگر کسی نمی‌تواند به ما آسیبی بزند. دیگر هیچ‌وقت سردتان نمی‌شود. او پس از مراسم شام محقر - بیسکوئیت و آب - و شستشویی که کاریکاتوری از مراسم شام آخر مسیح است، فرزندان خود را روانه قربانگاه وضعیت موجود می‌کند

قصه‌ای تکراری

زن داستان نام خاصی ندارد و در جایی نیز به نام خوانده نمی‌شود. نام او مهم نیست، چون او یکی از هزاران زن و هزاران انسانی است که به سرنوشتی محتوم دچار شده‌اند. مهم نیست این داستان در کدام شهر و کدام کشور رخ داده است. حتی مهم نیست جنایت چگونه به وقوع پیوسته است. می‌توان جای این‌ها، نام هر شهر و هر کشوری را نوشت که این داستانی تکراری‌ست. خوراندن سم به اعضای خانواده عموما پس از مراسم شامی محقر، یا جدا کردن لوله دودکش بخاری یا باز گذاشتن شیر گاز، این‌ها همه ماجراهایی تکراری‌ست. داستان این کتاب، حقیقتی تلخ است که هرکسی را توان مواجهه با آن نیست. عموما برای ما آدمیان، دروغ‌ها شیرین به حقایق تلخ ارج‌اند. زیرا حقایق، مسئولیت‌آورند و به ما چه فلان پابرهنه در فلان گوشه آرام و بی‌صدا سربه‌نیست می‌شود؟
در نهایت می‌توان کنار دریا را داستانی متعهد نامید که در عین ارزشمندی ادبی (بخصوص بابت توصیف‌های گزنده و عجیبش)، این سوال را در ذهن خواننده آگاه ایجاد می‌کند که چطور به اینجا رسیده‌ایم؟ چرا و به کدامین گناه و تا به کی قرار است این چرخه تکرار شود؟

پرسشی فرعی که بعد از خواندن داستان دممکن است در ذهن تداعی شود، این است که چرا افراد در چنین وضعیتی بچه‌دار می‌شوند؟ شاید چنین پرسشی بطور ماهوی و ذاتی اخلاقی باشد، اما طرح آن از سوی کسی که پیش از این، حمله و انتقادی هرچند ناچیز را با مشتی گره‌کرده به سوی عوامل محرومیت اجتماعی و اقتصادی روانه نکرده باشد، اخلاقی نبوده و مانند این است که بپرسیم چرا در چنین وضعیتی، افراد طبقه محروم نفس می‌کشند، منابع را هدر می‌دهند، جای دیگران را تنگ می‌کنند و در یک کلام زنده‌اند؟

[آبتین گلکار · Rating 3 out of 5]

اگه می‌خواستم بر اساس تأثیری که کتاب روی حال و روحیه‌ام داشت نمره بدم باید یک یا صفر می‌دادم و اگه ملاک نمره می‌شد هنر نویسنده (که احتمالاً هدفش درست ایجاد همین حال و روحیه‌ی مزخرف در خواننده بوده)، باید پنج می‌دادم. برای همین حد وسط رو گرفتم. شاید خیلی‌ها این نظر رو به حساب نازک‌نارنجی بودن بذارن یا به حساب این‌که توی کتاب‌ها فقط دنبال گل و بلبل هستم و از روبه‌رو شدن با واقعیت‌های تلخ زندگی می‌ترسم و از این چیزها، و شاید هم درست بگن، ولی واقعاً فکر نمی‌کنم این کتاب رو به کسی توصیه کنم؛ بیش از حد، خیلی بیش از حد، تلخ و سیاه بود

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

Whew! Not a great way to end the year......at least from a feel good standpoint.

Veronique's Olmi's BESIDE THE SEA brings to life a very dark and intensely sad story so full of despair and hopelessness that makes me thankful it was a short 125 page read.

In this haunting look at mental illness, a mother decides to take her two young children on a bus trip to the seashore for a bit of a holiday, and with only a few coins in the tin and her medication left behind, the desperation in her life takes a turn for the worse.

Read at your own risk!

[Ina Cawl]

What does it mean to be a mother?

Does being able to have birth to Children means you have the right to have them?
How stable I mean ( mentally,financially) should the person be so that he could a baby?
Who determines who have the right to bring children to this world?
And if you had the child who determines you can keep your child, does the state have that right?or the social worker?
What does it mean to be so poor in developed state?
What does it mean to be single mother in today world is it? Is it really hard to raise children single handed or is it impossible

I have so many questions and questions after reading this great novel which was published by peirene press

Beside the Sea by veronique Olmi translated by Adriana Hunter

In the beginning of the novel we fallow our unnamed narrator as she escapes with her both kids from the to the sea
The city is unknown,the name of our female protagonist is unknown the town she is also headed to is also unnamed.
“ We took the bus, the last bus at the evening, so no one would see us” from the beginning of the novel we understand there is some thing wrong here why is she leaving at night why is she doesn’t want to be seen?
In the next pages we our unnamed narrator with her two small children heading toward the sea and after arriving in the town she lost her way and
“ I was almost alone with the Kids and the town became a mystery, I did know which road to to take , where to cross, what would take us away and what would bring us closer, nothing moved and the quieter it became the more out of place we felt.”
We see her strangeness to the her inability to fathom or understand things around her or people “ whenever I go out I wonder where everyone’s going , charging in every direction , tramping up and down the streets, some of them even make phone calls while they walk, how can anyone be that busy?”
In the hotel our narrator tries to sleep like humans do but it seems ti be really hard for her even the normal sleep is challenge she has to go everyplace
This is really amazing novel in many ways and it leaves with deep impressions that even after finishing it it still plays in your head
But there is also a dark side to it I mean if you have the stomach of fallowing one person journey to abyss and have the stomach to you really should read it in one go so the pleasure and pain mixes together and leave you with highest experience ever
I wanna quote and quote so many beautiful prose I have seen there and we should also thank the translator as her translation was quite amazingly beautiful
But just to convince you to discover this novel and this great publishing house
Here are some of my best quotes

“ I wanted to get back to the night before, that night without dreams or insomnia, the one that detached me from myself, I wanted to get back to that place with no threats that I’d fallen into, but I’d lost it for good”
“
It is really amazing novel that stays with you for a long to come

[Arash · Rating 4 out of 5]

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فکر مثل جانور کوچک کثیفی است. بعضی وقت ها ترجیح می دهم سگ باشم. شرط می بندم سگ ها هیچ وقت نه با خودشان فکر می کنند کجا هستند، نه اینکه باید دنبال چه کسی بروند، فقط هوا را بو می کشند و همه ی این ها همان جا برای همی‌ه ثبت شده است. انسان ها حس بویایی ندارند. همین خطرناک است.
_

عجیب است که هیچ وقت در خیابان مردم را در حال گریه و زاری نمی بینم. بیشتر از اینکه گریه کنند، با تلفن صحبت می کنند. شاید اگر بیشتر گریه می کردیم کمتر از همدیگر متنفر بودیم.

_

بهترین بغل کردن وقتی است که هنوز نوزاد در شکم است. هیچ کس نیست که یادمان بدهد، بگوید زیاد تکانش می دهیم یا نه، به اندازه ای که باید تکانش نمی دهیم، بچه را بیدار نکنیم، اشتهایش را کور نکنیم، سرش را له نکنیم، فقط کنارش باشیم، فقط همین، فقط کنارش باشیم.

_

یک داستان سیاهِ سیاه، به رنگ شبهای بارانی توصیف شده در کتاب، سیاه و بدون ذره ای نور و روشنایی، پر از سر در گمی و روان پریشی و فقر و فلاکت و تباهی. مادری با مشکلات عدیده روحی و روانی که در حال از دست دادن سرپرستی دو پسر خود است، برای فرار از این امر دست به مسافرتی به مکامی در مجاورت دریا میزند. به جایی میروند که جز تاریکی چیزی نیست، یک شهر دور افتاده و غریب و ساکت و کثیف و مدام بارانی. مادر مدام در ذهن و فکرش با خود حرف میزند، به گفته خودش او در دو دنیا زندگی می کند، یکی واقعیت یکی وهم و خیال. نویسنده به خوبی توانسته حالات روحی مادر و همچنین تصویر سازی مناسبی از فضای شهر و هتل را به خواننده القا کند. بخش تکان دهنده و پایانی داستان با روان خواننده به شدت بازی میکند و روح را ته ته مایه میرنجاند.

_

بسیار کتاب رو دوست داشتم، کم حجم، قوی، تاثیر گذار. ممنون از مترجم بابت حسن سلیقه در انتخاب کتاب برای ترجمه و همچنین نشر چترنگ دوست داشتنی.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 star books are completely subjective and many people have their own criteria for what signifies a 5 star book. I don't have any specific criteria, honestly. Some feel like they are reading a work of genius, while the same work may feel menial to me. Some feel as if they are reading something redundant and a case of 'this has been done too many times' and give it a 2 or 3 and I still find that little something that puts me over that edge to give it a 4 or 5.

Olmi's words make you feel. It's all about feeling with this one.
This book made me feel depressed, but depression isn't necessarily a bad thing to me.
The words within bleed angst, paranoia, cynicism, pessimism and an overwhelming feeling of hysteria towards the world and its people; this is not a cry for help, but a way of life, a way of living, the only way she knows how -- for those responsible for others, this can be too much, so much that they have to use their bare hands to end it, to end it all.

"You struggle to live the best you can but soon the whole lot disappears. We get up in the morning, but that morning doesn't actually exist any more than the night before, which everyone's already forgotten. We're all walking on the edge of a precipice, I've known that for a long time. One step forward, one step in the void. Over and over again. Going where? No one knows. No one gives a damn."

Unforgettable.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

We took the bus, the last bus of the evening, so no one would see us.

So begins this distressing and ominous tale of a single mother taking her two boys to the sea. We don’t know why they’re going, although soon enough we can guess because things seem more than a little off. They find a hotel and a café, and they go to the beach; the mother is barely functional throughout and almost incapacitated by depression, insomnia and anxiety. We view the world filtered through her paranoia and it’s an unbearable place to be. Everyone is a threat and even the smallest task is an insurmountable challenge. She’s fading fast.

I don’t sleep well at night. It’s the worrying. I couldn’t tell you what about. It’s like something’s been lowered onto me…

Towards the end the family is at a carnival and the imagery seems to mirror what’s going on inside the mother’s head at any given time:

…the bells wouldn’t stop ringing, people were hurrying onto rides in every direction, where did all that money come from, everyone could afford everything, there was too much of everything everywhere, too much noise, too much rain, too many lights, all reeling past me and I didn’t know where I was anymore.

She cannot focus or think. Life is overwhelming. We are never told exactly what is wrong with her, but we know she’s severely fractured. Bleak, hopeless, real.

I wanted to get right inside myself, where nothing more could reach me.

[Andrew Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was an excellent book. I didn’t enjoy reading it. I wouldn’t recommend it.

That requires an explanation. The setting is a beach. This is not beach reading. It’s as far from it as it gets. As soon as I finiished I asked myself why anyone should read it. The answers came easily.

First of all, it’s short. The writing is stark and urgent, with no wasted words. Is that praise for a book? Here it is. I didn’t want to spend any more time in the protagonist’s head. The crucial act may not have been merciful, but the author‘s choice to make this only a novella was. It doesn’t give you room to breathe because the mother of the story can’t breathe either.

There’s an extreme maternal despair that’s not often examined. She isn’t romanticized or reduced to pathology. She’s lost, terrified, exhausted, and while what she does is unforgivable, the book doesn’t judge.

There’s no sensational buildup. No twist. The horror doesn’t come from shock but from slow, inescapable inevitability. That keeps the focus on empathy and discomfort, not fear.

You can’t think about it without asking why. But is it possible to provide an explanation for an unjustifiable act? Maybe…

For one thing, she isn’t thinking clearly. The author never diagnoses her, but her thinking is fragmented, anxious, and obsessive. She’s not seeing the world as it is, only through a lens of trauma, depression, and psychosis. Within that distorted framework she’s performing an act of mercy.

In her mind, the world is so hostile, so bleak, and so stacked against her children that she believes death is the only way to protect them. It’s a warped logic, but it holds within the collapse of her mental state.

It plunges you into the mind of someone who has lost all sense of proportion, and who believes her children are better off gone than left to suffer a life like hers. She loves her children, and that provides the contradiction. Her protection becomes lethal. That’s not justifying her. It’s showing how someone can fall through the cracks so completely that killing becomes their version of care.

[Roger Brunyate · Rating 4 out of 5]

 
Be Warned!

This little book should have a consumer's warning. It is short, it is compelling, and it will take you to a place you never wanted to go. Not in a hundred years, especially if you are a parent or have ever struggled with depression.

I am a great admirer of the translations published by the Peirene Press. They are original in content and perfectly calibrated to their short-novella length. Sorbets between heavier courses. In this belief, I took a break between two of the large sections of Richard Power's towering Overstory, hoping to cleanse the palate.

Mistake! There is nothing cleansing about this at all; it draws you deeper and deeper into the mud. It is is a 100-page monologue by a woman who, one evening, piles her two boys, 6 and 9, into a bus to take them to the seaside. It is dark, it is raining, and the hotel is crummy—but still, they are on an adventure; they are away. Away from what? Bit by bit, we begin to ask questions. Is the mother fleeing an abusive relationship? What does she do for money? What are her plans after the storm-tossed beach and the screaming fun-fair? Is she even entirely well?

As translated expertly by Adriana Hunter (into a decidedly British idiom), the novel simply can't be put down, even as you come to fear both answers and outcome. Really, Olmi and Hunter together deserve the full five stars. But I still wish I hadn't read it.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

With the first line I was sucked in to her mind:
"We took the bus, the last bus of the evening, so no one would see us."
A mom and her two young boys. A spontaneous trip to the seaside. Disquiet. A bit ominous. What’s going on, mom? Mom is fraying, and has been for a while. There are only opaque hints of the backstory, of the life before this mini-holiday. It feels claustrophobic being here in her mind, there are two of us in here but it seems only one of us can see clearly. It’s clear this mom loves her boys above all else, and also painfully and poignantly clear that she can not cope with even a stripped down reality.

Intense empathy. That is what this story evokes. So powerful.

I'm loving these books from Peirene Press, "...first class European literature in high quality translation." This novella was a bestseller in France, "Bord de Mer", and was staged in London a couple of years ago.
They are slim novels / novellas, promoted as books to read in less than 2 hours. But the ones I've read have packed in a lot more than a mere two hours worth of story.

[Rudi · Rating 5 out of 5]

„Wir waren im sechsten Stock angekommen. Hier war die Treppe zu Ende, man konnte sich nicht irren. Da, wo das Ende war, gehörten wir hin. Das wußten wir.“

Eine alleinerziehende Mutter, psychisch krank und in äußerst prekären Verhältnissen lebend, mit zwei Söhnen, Stan und Kevin, überrascht ihre Kinder mit einem ersten und letzten Urlaub am Meer. Dieser kurze Roman wird sehr direkt aus der Ich-Perspektive erzählt, wobei wir der psychischen Instabilität der Erzählerin, den Schwankungen in ihrer Wahrnehmung irritiert und unmittelbar beiwohnen. Außenperspektiven erhalten wir ausschließlich vermittelt in Erinnerungen der Ich-Erzählerin an die Mitarbeiterin der Sozialbehörde, die regelmäßig zu Kontrollbesuchen erscheint, an LehrerInnen und Erzieherinnen, an Personal in Geschäften etc. Es entsteht dennoch ein differenziertes, ein menschliches Porträt einer jungen Frau unter schwierigsten Lebensumständen, das unsere Sympathie und unser Verständnis für sie weckt und zugleich die Katastrophe erahnen lässt, die bevorsteht.

Ein starkes Stück Literatur.

[Parastoo Ashtian · Rating 3 out of 5]

این جور چیزها همیشه به این معنی هستند که کارها خوب پیش نمی‌رود، که کارها به طور کلی خوب پیش نمی‌رود، که همه چیز از دست رفته است و اوضاع بدتر هم خواهد شد. چیز ترسناکی در انتظارم است و همه‌اش تقصیر من است. اشتباه کردم و حالا خیلی دیر است. سعی می‌کنم با این حس مبارزه کنم. سعی می‌کنم صدایی را در وجودم بیدار کنم که می‌گوید این طور نیست. هیچ چیزی قرار نیست من را بدرد. من هیچ اشتباه بزرگی نکرده‌ام. فقط پرت و پلاهای بچگانه است. گاف‌های بی‌اهمیت که می‌توانست خنده‌دار باشد. باید خنده‌دار می‌بود. کاری که از دستم برمی‌آید را انجام می‌دهم. غول که نیستم، یا مادر ایده‌آلی که همه چیز را بدون هیچ صدمه‌ای انجام می‌دهد. می‌دانم آدم‌هایی هستند که هیچ‌وقت صدمه ندیده‌اند. چه بد! باید اعتراف کنم که هیچ‌وقت شبیه آنها نخواهم بود.

از متن کتاب

[Rosemary Atwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I kept thinking about Sylvia Plath and her poetry as I read this novella - mainly because of the twin parallels of bleakness and of the overwhelming inability of the protagonist to connect with the everyday world.

It’s an intensely personal examination of both paranoia and confrontation with an inevitable and heartbreaking plan of action. How this is achieved is the major theme of ‘Beside the Sea’ - a painful and compulsive narration of despair which begs to be read for its honest portrayal of a flawed individual who has finally run out of options and a sombre critique on societal expectations and insecurities.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mother takes her two young sons on a trip to the seaside. Sounds nice, doesn't it? There's even a bucket and spade on the cover. You can almost feel the warmth of the sun on your skin, hear the brass band playing a cheery tune. But this is not a nice little feel-good story about a trip to the sea. There's no sunshine, no brass bands, no sandcastles and laugher and sticks of rock. To get an idea of what this book is like, imagine that idyllic seaside trip viewed through a fun-house mirror - everything's distorted, everything's wrong, the music is off-key, the sea is hostile, the rain is constant, danger and madness lurks everywhere. It's a seaside trip you'd have in one of your darkest nightmares. It's one of the bleakest books I've ever read.

Notice I said "bleak", not depressing. I didn't find the book at all depressing, although I can see how some people would. Personally I've always liked dark, so-called depressing stories. I remember that as a teenager one of my favourite songs was REM's "Everybody Hurts". My friends asked me why I liked a depressing song about everybody hurting and crying, and I was surprised - to me it was the opposite of depressing. It made me feel better to realise that everybody hurt, not just me.

With literature, some of my favourite books have been depressing - a lot of the Russian classics like Crime and Punishment, pretty much anything by Dostoevsky in fact. More recently I loved Cormac McCarthy's The Road, again a pretty bleak read. My own first novel is not exactly cheery either. I think it's partly the same impulse to feel other people's pain so that my own life feels better in comparison - after the nightmare you do, after all, wake up. But it's also because I've always looked to literature to enable me to access the full range of human experience, including the experiences I wouldn't really want to have myself. If you're like me, I think you'll love this book. But I know that some people read to relax, or to cheer themselves up, or to escape into better worlds - if that sounds like you, then perhaps skip this one.

The entire book is the internal monologue of a depressed, anxiety-ridden mother. A sense of claustrophobia pervades the book. When I found out that Véronique Olmi is also a playwright, it made sense to me - the locations are very limited, and are sequenced almost like scenes from a play: the bus, the hotel room, the beach, the funfair. The surroundings also heighten the sense of being hemmed in - on the bus it's dark and the countryside is invisible, so there's no sense of motion or progress or a world beyond the bus; in the town they're lost and confused; in the hotel room it's either dark or raining all the time, so although the children are always looking out of the window there's little sense of what's out there. Each scene feels contained, like a stage with a painted backdrop and nothing beyond. It feels very deliberately done, and for me it worked very well in focusing the attention entirely on the characters and in building up a sense of unease and tension. What you can't do in a play, of course, is have that inner monologue - everything has to spoken out loud. A novel lets you step inside the character's head, and in this case it's a very intense experience. It's quite a short book, but still, by the end of it, being in the narrator's head felt almost as unbearable for me as it clearly was for her.

Being an internal monologue of a despairing mother, the novel is written in everyday language, with no literary flourishes. It also reflects the narrator's disordered state of mind, as she jumps around from thought to thought within the same sentence. At first, the style really grated on me, with its long run-on sentences separated by commas:

"There were a lot of people around us, unbelievable that there are so many people out there, specially so late, where are they all from, were they going to the same place as us, no way of knowing, they looked calm, lost in quiet thoughts."

Early on, I found this kind of thing so unbearable that I doubted I would finish the book, but at some point I suppose I just got used to it. I think that by the time the characters and the story had me hooked, I paid less attention to the writing. By the end, I felt that it was perfect for the story - there's a lot of drama towards the end, and a spare, unadorned style works much better for that sort of thing than overwrought descriptions.

The mother's sense of the world as a hostile and incomprehensible place is established beautifully and convincingly, through detail after detail after detail, dropped in gradually from the beginning to the end. On the bus, the other passengers all seem to know where they are going, while she has no idea:

"The others, you could tell, all felt safe and sound, you'd have thought they made this trip every evening. There was me losing track of where we were or how long it was since we left, and they just got more and more patient, some of them even slept, hands on their stomachs, mouths open, they knew the journey better than anyone, I was so afraid of missing the stop that I got up again to ask the driver."

This idea - that everyone else is inexplicably at ease, while only she feels bewildered, recurs again and again, whether she's describing other people in town or at the funfair, or other mothers outside the school gates. It's reinforced by her odd sleep patterns, lying awake in the middle of the night and falling asleep in the middle of the day, so that she never knows what time it is, whether it's morning or evening, and she's always lost - both the hotel and the sea are discovered only by aimless wandering, trying to look as if she knows what she's doing, and then accidentally coming upon them.

The hostility comes both from other people and the world in general. In the hotel, the staff never notice them, except for one time when the mother is having a severe anxiety attack and the hotel manager tries to calm her, and then extricates himself as quickly as he can. Mostly they are just ignored, the man behind the desk thrusting a key at them without taking his eyes off the football game on TV. They stop in a cafe, and the men drinking at the bar stare at them and then mock them for only having small change to pay with. At the funfair, someone knocks the younger boy's chips out of his hand and makes him cry. The elements also are against them - the sea is rough, the rain is constant, the mud clings to them, the damp won't leave their clothing. As perhaps the final mark of alienation from the world, the mother-narrator figure is not even named throughout the whole book.

I suppose the mark of a good book is that it affects you while you're reading it and stays with you afterwards, and this one did both. It gave me a convincing insight into someone else's life, someone very far from me but with whom I can still empathise. The ending was brilliant. It was the ending I had expected, which usually is a disappointment for me, but in this case it worked because of the excellent description and also the fact that I cared so much about the characters by then. I expected it, but even as it was happening I was wishing it wouldn't. It made me cry, which is quite rare. I can see why the book was a literary bestseller in France and Germany - it deserves to be one in the English-speaking world too.

Finally a word about the book itself, as a physical object: it's quite beautiful. Lovely, simple, elegant cover design, and the details inside are just excellent. It feels more expensively produced than a lot of paperbacks, with a sturdy cover, the kind of flaps you normally get on hardbacks, and quite heavy pages with generous amounts of white space - a real pleasure to read. It's the first book produced by a new publishing company called Peirene Press, which aims to produce new English translations of contemporary European literature. In a world where the response of most English-speaking readers (myself included) to JMG Le Clézio winning the Nobel Prize was "Who?", I think there's clearly room for a lot more translations of contemporary European literature. Peirene Press is certainly off to a great start with this book, and I'll be looking out for the next one.

[Roxane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is suffocating, haunting, and quietly terrifying. It's about madness and motherhood and a fine, fine read. Review forthcoming!

[David Hebblethwaite · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the launch title of Peirene Press, a new publisher specialising in English translations of short European works. And what a book to begin with. Véronique Olmi’s Beside the Sea, first published in France in 2001, and now available in Adriana Hunter’s superlative translation, is the story of a single mother taking her two sons to a seaside town. But all is not as happy as it sounds. Here is how Beside the Sea begins:

We took the bus, the last bus of the evening, so no one would see us. The boys had their tea before we left, I noticed they didn’t finish the jar of jam and I thought of that jam left there for nothing, it was a shame, but I’d taught them not to waste stuff and to think of the next day.

(9)

Ordinary enough details, but with dark undertones — why leave so furtively? Why dwell on the unfinished jam? Even in this first paragraph, the seeds of the ending are sown, but the power of Beside the Sea lies in how the journey unfolds. Olmi gradually reveals just how fragile is her protagonist’s psyche: the narrator is a woman ill at ease with the world, reluctant to engage with other people, simultaneously protective of her children and at times uneasy around them.

Reading this character’s story is an intense, discomforting experience; her words spill out in a torrent of clauses, pushing inexorably on to the conclusion, which has no less impact for being anticipated (and may actually have more). Beside the Sea is a superb character study that marks out Peirene Press as a publisher to follow. Recommended.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just arrived from Sweden. A sweet gift from my dear friend Bettie.

The plot is quite similar to "Beloved" by Toni Morrison in a complete different context of course.

However, I still think it's hard to understand, in this particular book, the children's destiny stablished by their mother. To think about.

[Alireza · Rating 4 out of 5]

این کتاب رو به همراه دو کتاب یک انسان، یک حیوان و مروارید های پشیمانی، به خاطر پیشنهاد دوست گودریدزی عزیزمون کامران تو توییتر خریدم.
از این کتاب خیلی خوشم اومد و مشتاقم اون دوتای دیگه رو هم رو بخونم به زودی.
و در کل مرسی به خاطر پیشنهاد.
درباره این کتاب ریویو خود کامران به نظرم کامل هست و من خیلی چیزی برای اضافه کردن بهش ندارم. فقط اینکه توی این تعداد صفحات کم نویسنده به خوبی میتونه داستان رو منتقل کنه و حرفی که میخواد بزنه رو بزنه و چه قدر از نوع روایت نویسنده و نزدیک شدنش به سوژه خوشم اومد چون نویسنده دنبال برانگیختن حس ترحم نیست و فقط مخاطب رو وادار به دیدن می کنه.
برخلاف (موردی که الان به ذهنم میرسه) فیلم کفرناحوم که اونجا کارگردان نه تنها از مخاطب ترحم می‌خواد بلکه در آخرش هم میگه خب اشکال نداره تقصیر خودشونه و میاد مانیفستش برای بهتر شدن اوضاع رو از زبون یه بچه بیان میکنه.

[آرزو · Rating 4 out of 5]

هشتاد صفحه تاریکی و تاریکی.
چیزی که در مورد این کتاب خیلی دوست داشتم اینه که مطمئنی قراره اتفاق بدی بیفته (این کتاب بر اساس یه داستان واقعیه و پشت جلد هم اینو نوشته)، اما تقریبا تا آخر داستان نمی‌تونی بگی اون اتفاق چیه.
ترجمه ایراداتی داره اما طوری نیست که کل داستان و توصیفات نویسنده رو از دست بدید.
از متن کتاب:
می‌خواستم به شب قبل برگردم. شبی بدون رویا و بدون خوابی. شبی که من را از خودم جدا می‌کرد. می‌خواستم دوباره به همان چاله بدون تهدیدی برگردم که درونش افتاده بودم؛ ولی برای همیشه گمش کرده بودم. دیشب شبی مثل بقیه داشتم؟ این همان چیزی است که هر شب به سراغشان می‌آمد؟ پاداشی به خاطر اینکه روزشان را به خوبی گذرانده بودند؟ من هیچ‌وقت پاداشی نگرفته‌ام. خوابم چاقویی است که طناب‌هایی را که در طول روز ازشان آویزان می‌شوم، می‌برد.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 This little novella certainly packed a punch. Still trying to figure out where I had heard about this little book, I must have read about it somewhere because it is not a book I would have just picked up. Well written, very sad but realistic. Poignant look at a mother's desperation and the lack of social services to help her. Will now go back to reading my book about murder and mayhem, ala Cordova style.

[Emily May · Rating 4 out of 5]

We're all walking on the edge of a precipice, I've known that for a long time. One step forward, one step in the void. Over and over again. Going where?

I was not sure about this book at first. It's told in very spare prose and quickly gives the impression that a lot more is being implied than being said. The protagonist is a single mother who is taking a trip to the seaside with her two sons. They stay in a hotel, visit the beach, and go to a funfair... but throughout all of this, an unsettling feeling was creeping up on me.

The haunting prose and allusions to the mother's mental health gradually build a sense of wrongness. A sense of something is not right. Because of the eerie, almost otherworldly feel to the story, I found the book resembled psychological horror more than typical literary fiction, and at the climax of the book, my heart was literally pounding.

The final scenes were terrible and heart-wrenching. I can understand some dissatisfaction with the book over the lack of concrete answers, but I thought it made up for it with atmosphere and feeling.

[Kathleen Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant but disturbing book. This isn't a novel to read if you're depressed, but it's a book you should read. I found it disturbing and very moving. It was apparently a 'controversial' best-seller in France. Narrated in the first person, vernacular, it's the story of a young, single mother, who is struggling to cope - with her two little boys, with her own mental health, social workers, teachers, and inadequate money. We are totally inside her world and her head. It makes gut-wrenching reading.

She has decided to blow all the money she can lay her hands on - which isn't much - on a trip to the sea-side for herself and the boys. They have never seen the sea and she wants to give them one last glimpse of it. She envisages a blue sky, sand, blue water, but it's winter and it's raining.

What makes the book so brilliant is the way the young mother's state of mind is conveyed to the reader - the occasional dazzle of back-story glimpsed between phrases - the blink of a hidden meaning behind a particular word. What is also fascinating is the way she observes the world watching her - judging her - a million light years away from where she actually is.

This is a book about a social tragedy that could be happening in the next street - on the next bus you take - in a cafe you slip into for an aperitivo. You won't look at people in the same way again.

[Pallavi · Rating 5 out of 5]

***5.0***

A single mother takes her two boys to the sea shore. But something is not right. what?
Narrated by an mentally unstable woman, who is mentally ill with depression, insomnia, poverty, chemical imbalance and the responsibility of motherhood where she has to look after two little sons, Kevin (5) and Stan(9).

The mother here does not like the world around her. The world terrifies her, does not understand her and she wants to save her boys from this cruel world. Extremely raw but beautifully written. Its a gut wrenching tale of sadness and also a insight on metal illness. The plot reminds me of Toni Morrison's Beloved.

A very short read which makes us think - am I doing a good job? should I be proud of my accomplishments when many suffer around me? am I a reason for someone's misery or adding to it, being thoughtless?

Happy Reading!!!

[Nurture Waratah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beside the Sea is a translation of a French book Bord de Mer, the first novel from acclaimed dramatist Véronque Olmi. First published in 2001, this novel has been translated into all major European languages. On the surface, this seems to be a sweet story about a mother taking her children on a trip to the seaside. However, digging a little deeper reveals a darker undercurrent. This is no joyful jaunt to sun, surf and sand. Instead, we discover a deeply disturbed mother, already on the edge, afraid for the life of poverty and exclusion that she fears her boys are destined to lead. Determined to give them at least one happy memory, she takes them on a holiday that she cannot afford and has not properly planned.

We are introduced to the two little boys, Stan and Kevin, through the eyes of their mother allowing us to develop a proxy parental concern for them. The story is told from within their mother’s mind but she remains nameless, allowing us to feel empathy for her while still keeping her at arms distance.

Seeing the experiences of this family through the eyes of the boys gives a sense of wonder and delight, but the covering veil of the mother’s thoughts and emotions and the constant presence of rain gives the story a continual sense of darkness that leads to a disharmony – a sense that something is not quite right.

As a mother who has experienced the depths of depression, I can totally relate to this mother’s concerns and despair when she considers sending her boys out into this dark and dreary world. But the very fact that I am lucky enough to be on the road to recovery makes the climax of this book all the more tragic. There, but for the grace of the Gods go I.

At only 111 pages, Beside the Sea is quite short, but don’t let that fool you into believing that it is a light read. It is not. This story will have you delving into the deepest, darkest parts of your soul and some may not like what they find.

Overall, this is a superbly written book with a small but well-developed cast. The author’s theatrical influence can definitely be felt in the vividly described scenery and clear transition between scenes.

Despite the quality of the writing, Beside the Sea is not for everyone. Delving into the dark side of motherhood, coupled with a deeply disturbing climax, could be upsetting to many readers, particularly parents. For those brave enough to read this book, I highly recommend picking up a copy. It is very much worth it.

[Shawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Endeavor to breathe through this one. My initial reaction was to give this 4 stars, but the only reason I could find for not giving it 5 is the very reason it deserved it -- it is hauntingly, searingly, heartbreaking.
Extremely raw. Beautifully written, beautifully told. Arguably one of the most clearly drawn, nameless, first person narrators in the history of fiction. Not an ounce of pain is lost in translation.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the hours since finishing I've realized that I need to bump this up to 5 stars.

Cannot sit at desk to compose reviews right now, but I'm promising myself I will catch up on some reviews this weekend.

[Guzzo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Voy a leer todo lo que escriba esta mujer.

[Mohammad Amin · Rating 5 out of 5]

داستان کتاب راجب سفر یک مادر همراه دو پسر خودش یعنی استان پسر بزرگتر و کوین پسر کوچکتر هستش که راهی شهری هستن که بتونن دریا رو ببینن اوایل کتاب بیشتر نویسنده با تصویر سازی هایی مثل (با دو دست کمربندش را بالا کشید و بعد با حالت خشنی گفت: زود باش ! همه این ها را جمع کن ! و دست هایش را بالای میز تکان داد. بقیه مردها برایم زبان درآوردند مثل چند آدم شریف مقابل چند اوباش ولگرد. و آن ولگردها ما بودیم.)
من رو مجذوب خودش کرد و در ادامه با این قدرت توی تصویر سازی وارد کشیدن صحنه اثر فقر بر روی یک مادر شد و به جرئت میتونم بگم شاید جزو معدود کتاب هایی بود که باهاش تونستم زیر بارون همراه دیگر شخصیت ها خیس بشم، همراه شخصیت ها برم هتل، برم کافه و همراه دیگر بچه ها مدتی رو تو شهربازی با نگاه کردن به بلیت و انتظار برای رسیدن نوبتم سپری کنم و البته چیزی که بیشتر از همه من رو مجذوب خودش کرد پایان بندی بود
پایان بندی کتاب به شکل بی نظیری شکل گرفته طوری که از یک اثر ماندگار که سال ها بعد تو قفسه های یک کتاب فروشی میبینی که صرفا آدم ها از جلوی اون رد میشن و هیچ اسم و رسمی ازش نمونده و همه به دنبال آثار جدید نویسندگان روز هستن چشمت بهش میوفته و برای دقایقی یاد زمانی میوفتی که سفر کوتاهی رو با شخصیت های این کتاب به دریا داشتی

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

A single mother of two boys wants to take them on a little holiday near the sea. That might sound simple enough, but it is a major life event and challenge for this mother, who suffers from some kind of mental affliction that requires her to take daily medication.

This trip is out of the ordinary and we experience it from inside the mind of the mother, the stream of consciousness narrative is so effective here, it gets inside your own mind as you read and we feel her sense of anxiety and the hostility of the outside world, from which she wishes to protect her children.

An incredible novella, I just couldn't give it any more stars, as I don't particularly enjoy going into that state and arriving at its inevitable conclusion.

It is an interesting challenge, that an author would choose to travel inside the mind of someone like this and I am sure this was probably one of the works that the publisher Mieke Ziervogel read as research in writing her book 'Magda'.

Poignant and thought-provoking too, given the issues that lie beneath its surface, this is the story that is never told and rarely understood by the public, who only see the end result and judge it too easily.

This is the first book in the Peirene Press Female Voices: Inner Realities series.

My full review here at Word by Word.

[dely · Rating 4 out of 5]

In sole 90 pagine Véronique Olmi riesce a farci penetrare nell'angoscia e nella disperazione di una madre mentalmente disturbata.
Il ritmo serrato, l'alternarsi di frasi lunghe con la punteggiatura ridotta al minimo e di frasi molto brevi ci lasciano senza fiato, ci sentiamo soffocare; percepiamo l'ansia e l'angoscia di questa madre.
Una madre sola decide di portare i suoi due figli, nove e cinque anni, al mare e partono di sera; è inverno, per tutto il racconto piove, fango sulle strade, mare in burrasca, tutto è grigio, sembra quasi di percepire l'umidità. Questa pioggia fitta e interminabile, la piccola stanza d'albergo, la gente per strada, tutto trasmette un senso di claustrofobia, manca l'aria.
È un viaggio nella mente e nelle emozioni di questa madre malata, un groviglio di pensieri che la Olmi riesce a descrivere con lucidità e precisione.