It’s the story of a son who leaves and a mother who waits. This maternal love is infinite, on the verge of madness. It’s the story of waiting a long time for him to come back, for him to share something with her; of her dreaming of an extravagant party. It’s the story of a couple that both hurts each other and loves each other. It’s a story set in Brittany, between World War II and the 60s, but it could have been somewhere else, anywhere where women wait for men who have left, where mothers worry.

A woman loses her husband, a fisherman, at sea. She gets remarried, to the village pharmacist. Her son from her first marriage feels out of place in this new family, and he eventually goes to see as well. And so begins, for the narrator, a long period of waiting, a period that she will try, as best she can, to fill by daydreaming about the huge banquet she’ll prepare to celebrate her son’s return.

With her flawless and insightful writing, Gaëlle Josse leads us once again through the meandering paths of love. Gaëlle Josse continues her exploration of the human heart, achieving flashes of overwhelming emotion.