Ariane’s Fool

A terrible truth hidden behind the façade of family ties

Véronique is five years old in 1940 when her grandfather, a respected notary, decides that wealth is an abomination and that henceforth he would be poor – along with his family, as long as they remain under his roof.

The house, The Laburnums, is emptied of its furniture, the five grandchildren from different liaisons, being entrusted with various chores: for Véronique the wooden logs, for Ariane, two years older, the picking of blackberries and chestnuts up in the mountains – Ariane whose mocking smile and green, oh so green, eyes she cannot bear…

What is this little witch Ariane hiding? What secret ties her to this grandfather who has lost his marbles?

“I was very naive,“ says Véronique at the start of the novel. “I didn’t even know I had already started lying to myself….”

A novel in which bizarre & painful events are evoked in a masterfully poetic language
A journey into a delightful, terrifying world of subterfuge