A joy and delight from beginning to end.

Beautifully translated. The French language becoming a smooth poetic English text full of charm and Gallic flavour. Set in Paris yet the characters are accessible and strikingly familiar.
Slowly the reader is drawn into the patient/doctor interactions of Nathalia Guitry to Doctor Faber. I really enjoyed these therapy sessions and psychoanalysis especially when she agrees to write about her neighbours.

“ ‘In my apartment… I watch the people opposite. In the north wing.’
‘You watch your neighbours?’ ‘
‘Yes. Force of professional habit. I feel as if I’m an eye.’
She has internalised a form of perversion: voyeurism, rendered harmless through the practice of her profession. But Nathalia cannot be a perverted voyeur because she is a photographer by trade. For her, the act of seeing is a continuation of her work.”

She is seeking help, as she can no longer pursue her professional career as a photographer. One day her camera captured a murder.

So this interaction slowly unfolds as we too become voyeurs learning about those living in the apartments opposite. Each seems to have overcome some difficulty or crisis in their lives. The doctor wonders how much is true or simply the product of his patient’s imagination. The stories are a clever addition to the drama, character driven and interesting tales in themselves.

The book quickly draws you in; you feel unable to abandon the story of this woman seeking help and ultimately the shock of the murder comes out. Breathless drama; a clever setting for the unravelling of some strange events.
Ideas of self worth, motivation, desire and identity surface but it is the two characters centre strange that hold the most tension.

Such powerful storytelling that is both engaging and revealing.
Fiction at its best that challenges reality and convention.
From the pen of a celebrated author with a unique style underpinned in gentle wit, full of life and affirmation.

This is my first read by Antoine Laurain . I enjoyed reading it . It was fast, quick and an interesting read , similar to Dr Faber I was compelled to discover whether the stories Nathalie brings him are works of imagination or true. I didn’t figure out the twist right away but I did expect it towards the end just before it got revealed. Overall it's a great read, a book that got me out of my reading slump😍. I thank netgalley and Pushkin press for eARC copy.