Beautifully written set of three novellas translated from the French the story of a woman’s life.The author shares her world her experiences her thoughts.I loved immersing myself in each of her stories and looking forward to discussing them .Highly recommend.#netgalley #penguinpress

A beautifully written set of three novellas- each of which can be read as a standalone (for want of a better word) but which are best read as one because they depict the life of a woman in three stages, Colombe at 17 falls in love, falls pregnant, and then...we move to Colombe and her friendship with Heloise. These two privileged young women might seem like blank slates but you know Colombe's back story. And then there's her life as a married mother whose family doesn't really figure into this. This is character not plot driven and it won't be for everyone but it may well speak to you. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of literary fiction.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This novel begs to be read and discussed. I longed to talk to someone about the characters and experiences. It would be perfect for a book club.

This is an exquisite book; three novellas about the author's life. So fresh, such beautiful writing (and wonderful translations as the original novellas are in French). And yes, so very french in the best way. It is, I think, a memoir, although it has a literary novel feel as well. The themes are universal but very particular to this young woman, from seventeen when she was forced to recognise she had a woman's body, to the story of her deep and non-judgemental friendship with another woman from a different background—but in friendship that was not at all important, and finally when she finds the love of her life from whom she learns, at last, as he teaches her to swim, to love and trust and rely on her own body; a body that will stay with her all her life, and unlike her father, her friend and her lovers, will always be there. I read it over two days, barely unable to tear myself away from it to carry out the mundane tasks of every-day life, or even my own, so much less wonderful, writing! À la vie Colombe Schneck! Thank you to the publisher, the author, the translators and NetGalley for a digital ARC.

The second vignette qbout friendship is so beautifully and simple written..it brings to mind Elena Ferrante all be it a different locale and socioeconomic class. I was so sad at the end as I looked forward to every reading moment with these women and their story…..literature at its best..the theme of female friendship over a lifetime is never old but increasingly rare ouvre

I'm very glad Schneck's works are being translated to English so more readers can understand the depth and value of her writing. This book is a 3-part collection of novellas about Colombe's coming of age. We hear about her heartbreak, love, pregnancy, aging, marriage, divorce, and more. The first novella is a must-read for every woman, but all of our stories are deeply insightful for anyone looking to learn more accounts of hardship and determination. She has such imagination in her writing and is so gripping from start to finish. I really look forward to checking out other translated works of hers in the future!

I really enjoyed reading this book, it had everything that I was looking for. I enjoyed the three stories in this book. The characters felt like they were in the same world and enjoyed the overall concept. Colombe Schneck has a great writing style and I enjoyed what I read. It was a great journey for this woman and I enjoyed getting to read this.

I adored the let three autobiographical (it seems) novellas that together paint a lovely picture of the author.

Schneck is a known, award-winning writer in France, and these are the first works of hers to be translated into English. A triptych of novellas translated from the French, compelling and detailed, tracing the development of the life of Colombe, so I assume these works, like those of Annie Ernaux, are autobiography, memoir, rather than fiction, and cut close to the bone, with similar themes - time, place, strictures, rules, coming of age, love, an accidental pregnancy, schooling, marriage, affairs, divorce, midlife, and more - but Colombe, an only child, is born after the May 1868 student uprising, with its increased freedoms of behavior at least in Paris. Her parents are Jewish left-wing doctors, first or second generation immigrants from Eastern Russia, part of the nouveau riche, though not as wealthy as Colombe's best friend from childhood, Heloise, and others at her exclusive private school long the bastion of important families with long lineages and old French money; still her family is part of the bourgeoise, with its rules for dressing and education and behavior, the rules ceding in more permissive Paris. Their life is easy, a lovely apartment in a lovely neighborhood, vacations, after school classes, school, ambitions, desires, the world will open for her, but all is not perfect - her mother Helene suffers intensely from her years during WW II, hiding alone in a church, untouched for years, saddled with the force of social anxiety and more, able to love but not able to show love. Her father, a psychologist and charming, very much enjoys the new freedom, is charming, has affairs, but always returns home. The first novella, Seventeen, is set in 1984, and Colombe's first love affair with a boy named Vincent unfolds with full knowledge of both sets of parents, sleepovers not hidden, and she is accidentally pregnant at 17. Though abortions are no longer illegal as they were in Annie Ernaux's time, the Veil law has been passed, but legality does not alter the effects of abortion, its emotional ramifications on Colombe through the years are no less intense for the legality. The second novella, Friendship, focuses on the coming of age of Colombe and her best friend Heloise - they live rarified lives, English-language classes to perfect their British accents, tennis lessons, her vacations with Heloise's family in beautiful South of France homes, never shopping malls or borrowing books from the library, but there are differences, relayed in subtle details between the friends' families during those formative years of the 1970s and 1980s, ethnic, class, and political. The third novella, Swimming: A Love Story, is set in 2020, and Colombe, from a distance of time, recounts her great love with Gabriel, post her divorce, when she is a mother and and a working woman, after a season of romantic disenchantment. They have nothing in common, but he is madly in love with her, and she, though fearful of trusting that love, does indeed give in to it, comes to believe it, but it is only later that she is able to look at the affair carefully, to see her emotional discomfort, to face the truth of her doubts, a love affair that unfolds and ends while Heloise is dying early; it's a beautiful meditation on the vagaries of being alive, about continuing on, though specific to time and place, these novellas also have great universality, and I found them fascinating, filled with grace, and frankness.

Thanks to The Penguin Group/The Penguin Press and Netgalley for the ARC.

Intereting approach but I am tired of the topic. Nicely written. Good luck with the book and thanks for the opportunity to read.