Daughters of the House: A Novel [Paperback]

Michèle Roberts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 7, 2001

A Booker Prize Finalist, Daughters of the House is Michèle Roberts’s acclaimed novel of secrets and lies revealed in the aftermath of World War II. Thérèse and Léonie, French and English cousins of the same age, grow up together in Normandy. Intrigued by parents’ and servants’ guilty silences and the broken shrine they find in the woods, the girls weave their own elaborate fantasies, unwittingly revealing the village secret and a deep shame that will haunt them in their adult lives.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This richly atmospheric tale of murder and adolescent rivalry between two cousins was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1992.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In this lyrical novel, cousins Therese and Leonie come together and look back on their childhood spent in a small French village just after World War II. Events of the past (the Nazi occupation, the death of Therese's mother, and the mysterious betrayal of a French resistance fighter and a family of Jews who had been hidden in Therese's house) still resonate in their lives. In response, Therese turns to religion, while Leonie devotes herself to the minutiae of an ordinary life. Despite some good writing, the book fails to engage the reader because Roberts, author of several novels and collections of poetry, cannot make up her mind whether it is about adolescent religious fervor (in which case, Ron Hansen's Mariette in Ecstasy , Harper, 1991, is much superior) or the treachery of memory. This novel was short-listed for the Booker Prize and won the W.H. Smith Prize for 1992 in Britain. Libraries with large literary fiction collections should consider.
- Nancy Pearl, Washington Center for the Book at the Seattle P. L.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Picador (December 7, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312420382
• ISBN-13: 978-0312420383
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,619,438 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars provincial French Catholics, July 5, 2009

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Imogen (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Daughters of the House: A Novel (Paperback)

The English writer Michèle Roberts wrote Daughters of the House. The novel is a narrative about provincial French Catholics in post-WWII Normandy and thirty years later. Cousins Thérèse and Léonie are the protagonists within the familial and village setting. The reader enters the intimacy of the girls' lives. We poach mackerel in the kitchen, experience sexual awakening, and celebrate the Virgin Mother in a nocturnal forest. Suspense is carried by random bits concerning a tragedy in the village's history. A further twist is the possibility of a secrecy in the cousins' background. The girls disentangle the web of events the years covered over.