A brilliant new novel from Agnès Desarthe’s: a woman explores her life by going back in time, guided by her passion for music.
In the wedding hall, a declaration of love is exchanged and a lifelong bond is formed. The lovers are a four-year-old boy and girl. Years later, in college, they meet again. She, the narrator, recognizes him. He, Étienne, has forgotten her. Yet she keeps deep inside the promise she made herself to love him forever. They each live their own lives. Music inhabits her, while he has a passion for a young woman, Antonia, which inspires him towards creation. Her life is family, extraordinary people, music ; we fall out, we shout, but we remain united. His, meanwhile, is all drama: Antonia dies while giving birth to their daughter. Life brings them back to each other at the strongest moments of their lives. And, always, the narrator listens to Etienne, who never remembers her first name. But that doesn’t matter... One day, they will meet again in an orchestra, and perhaps, on that day, the smuggler, the eternal lover, will be able to resume the course of her destiny. She will have been faithful to this man desired by all women.
