When cautious Emma Roberts goes to France to carry out research into
17th-century garden design, she finds a reliable diversion from her
studies in her unlikely new friend Francoise Desnoyers, in whose
beautiful house she is welcomed as a guest. She is not too dazzled to
ignore the tensions that exist between Francoise and her formidable
mother, or between Mme. Desnoyers and her other guests.
London recedes into the background as life in France becomes more
significant in every respect. It is not until the horrifying episode
that puts an end to this fascination that Emma is reconciled to her
duller but safer life at home and to the compromises that she comes to
accept.
Anita Brookner was born in south London in 1928, the daughter of a
Polish immigrant family. She trained as an art historian, and worked at
the Courtauld Institute of Art until her retirement in 1988. She
published her first novel, A Start in Life, in 1981 and her 24th,
Strangers, in 2009. As well as fiction, Anita Brookner has published a
number of volumes of art criticism.
