Monsieur Linh and His Child

Neniu kovrilo — Monsieur Linh and His Child (2012)

Lingvo: English

Eldonita je 2-a de februaro 2012

ISBN:: 978-0-85705-099-1

(1 recenzo)

Monsieur Linh and His Child is a novella by French author Philippe Claudel, originally published in French in 2005. Monsier Linh is a South-East Asian — probably Vietnamese — refugee to France. His son and daughter-in-law were killed in an unspecified war, and he has fled to France with his infant granddaughter, Sang Diû. Despite the language barrier, he befriends the widower Monsieur Bark, whom he meets on a park bench.

4 eldonoj

Stephanie Jane recenzis Monsieur Linh and His Child de Philippe Claudel

Heartbreaking

5 steloj

It is rare that a book manages to move me to tears, but Monsieur Linh did just that. Even in translation (beautifully achieved by Euan Cameron) the prose is emotional and elegant. The story of an elderly and traumatised Vietnamese man arriving in a French detention centre is deceptively simple and not much actually happens, but in his descriptions of this not much, Claudel opens our eyes to such great pain and despair that I believe any reader would struggle to remain untouched. Monsieur is the third in Claudel's loose trilogy of 'war' books and I have loved reading all three.