Liturgy is an anthology of short stories on the theme of out-of-the-way villages and the life of the people in the high country — where nature is harsh, and winter lasts too long. It’s the eternal story of silent families and those who are crushed.
Jeanne, whose face is gone and whose life is lost in the cracks between the lives of her nieces and nephews, who should remember but have forgotten, because Aunt Jeanne never mattered at all.
Alphonse, who loves women’s work, especially anything having to do with cloth, who mends and sews all afternoon in the empty kitchen, by the window overlooking the family land, where the real work – the men’s work – takes place.
The memory of Roland, who never chose to be a carpenter, to live here with his mother. Roland, who envied his brother, who had managed to desire and to leave, had gone far from the glue of their home, the transmission of the required legacy.
Roland who, one morning, chose to hang himself...

These short stories confirm Marie-Helene Lafon’s talent for bringing a tragic or dramatic dimension to the passions of her heroes — unassuming characters all. Not a single word is unnecessary, nor a single emotion out of place: everything has the force of the ineluctable.