Véronique Olmi was born in 1962 in Nice and now lives in Paris. She is a highly acclaimed French dramatist and her twelve plays have won numerous awards. Bord de Mer, published in 2001 and translated into all major European languages, was her first novel. Adriana Hunter spent won the 2011 Scott-Moncrieff Prize for her translation of Véronique Olmi's Bord de Mer (Beside the Sea), and has been short-listed twice for both the French-American Foundation and Florence Gould Foundation Translation Prize and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. She lives in Norfolk, England.
"A harrowing evocation of mental illness, and of one woman's
terrifying inability to bear the burdens of motherhood. A sustained
exercise in dread for the reader, but a surprisingly sympathetic
portrait nonetheless." Lionel Shriver, "We Need to Talk about
Kevin"
"This is a mesmerising portrait ... it should be read."Nicholas
Lezard, "The Guardian"
"With the skill of a thriller writer, the mother-narrator propels
you forward and as, the awful climax approaches, compels you to
profoundly question your own life and relationships." Rosie
Goldsmith, BBC
"This short novel has the trajectory of a classic tragedy with its
taut time-span and sense of inevitability ... The closing pages are
heart-stopping and heartbreaking, yet one finishes this sad tale
not depressed but uplifted by its ability to enlarge the reader's
sympathies."Chris Schuler, "The Independent"
"Prose ... filled with sad poetic sense and blunt, bleak realities,
compellingly conveyed in Hunter's colloquial English." "TLS"
""Beside the Sea" is a delicious treat. Written in a palette that
is dark and damp, this little book exposes a world that is as
delicate as it is dangerous. I devoured it in a single
sitting.""The Masters Review Blog"
""Beside the Sea" is a haunting and thought-provoking story about
how a mother's love for her children can be more dangerous than the
dark world she is seeking to keep at bay. It's a hypnotizing look
at an unhinged mind and the cold society that produced it. With
language as captivating as the story that unfolds, Veronique Olmi
creates an intimate portrait of madness and despair that won't soon
be forgotten."
Ravenna Third Place Book Club"
"This is a mesmerizing portrait . . . it should be read."
--Nicholas Lezard, "The Guardian"
"With the skill of a thriller writer, the mother-narrator propels
you forward and as, the awful climax approaches, compels you to
profoundly question your own life and relationships." --Rosie
Goldsmith, BBC
"This short novel has the trajectory of a classic tragedy with its
taut time-span and sense of inevitability . . . The closing pages
are heart-stopping and heartbreaking, yet one finishes this sad
tale not depressed but uplifted by its ability to enlarge the
reader's sympathies." --Chris Schuler, "The Independent"
"Prose . . . filled with sad poetic sense and blunt, bleak
realities, compellingly conveyed in Hunter's colloquial English."
--"TLS"
"This is a mesmerizing portrait ... it should be read." --Nicholas
Lezard, "The Guardian"
"With the skill of a thriller writer, the mother-narrator propels
you forward and as, the awful climax approaches, compels you to
profoundly question your own life and relationships." --Rosie
Goldsmith, BBC
"This short novel has the trajectory of a classic tragedy with its
taut time-span and sense of inevitability ... The closing pages are
heart-stopping and heartbreaking, yet one finishes this sad tale
not depressed but uplifted by its ability to enlarge the reader's
sympathies." --Chris Schuler, "The Independent"
"Prose ... filled with sad poetic sense and blunt, bleak realities,
compellingly conveyed in Hunter's colloquial English." --"TLS"
"This is a mesmerising portrait ... it should be read." --Nicholas
Lezard, "The Guardian"
"With the skill of a thriller writer, the mother-narrator propels
you forward and as, the awful climax approaches, compels you to
profoundly question your own life and relationships."
--Rosie Goldsmith, BBC
"This short novel has the trajectory of a classic tragedy with its
taut time-span and sense of inevitability ... The closing pages are
heart-stopping and heartbreaking, yet one finishes this sad tale
not depressed but uplifted by its ability to enlarge the reader's
sympathies."
--Chris Schuler, "The Independent"
"prose ... filled with sad poetic sense and blunt, bleak realities,
compellingly conveyed in Hunter's colloquial English. "
-- "TLS"
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