À six ans, tandis que l'Angleterre s'incline devant le roi George VI décédé, Mary Ward, fille d'un fermier du Suffolk, comprend que, malgré les apparences, elle n'est pas une petite fille. Dès lors, elle s'efforcera de devenir Martin, un garçon hardi, tendre et viril. Au fil des années, elle poursuit son rêve, du Suffolk à Londres, de l'Angleterre des Beatles à l'Amérique profonde. Rêve impossible ? Peut-être. Mais ceux qui l'entourent, de sa grand-mère, morte en planeur, à Walter, le garçon boucher qui veut devenir chanteur de country, ne sont-ils pas eux aussi à la recherche de leur royaume interdit ?Un roman superbe dans son propos comme dans sa forme. Françoise Giroud, Le Journal du dimanche.Je cherche un autre exemple d'un roman aussi beau, aussi généreux par la noblesse troublante de son regard, la justesse sans faille de son style. Frédéric Vitoux, Le Nouvel Observateur.Une merveille. Anne Walter, Marie Claire.Prix Femina étranger 1994. Traduit de l'anglais par Jean Bourdier.
Juste avant que n'éclate la Seconde Guerre mondiale, dans un petit village suisse, deux jeunes garçons vont se lier d'amitié. Gustav, à l'enfance difficile, est orphelin de père. Celui-ci, un policier local a permis, malgré les ordres des autorités, à des réfugiés juifs d'entrer dans le pays. Selon Emilie, sa veuve, la crise cardiaque qui l'a emporté après la guerre, n'est pas étrangère à ce comportement. Elle reporte son amertume sur Gustav. Anton, lui, est un pianiste prodige, choyé par des parents juifs très aisés, qui ont pour lui une très grande ambition et veulent qu'il réussisse une carrière de concertiste. Gustav est invité par Anton et ses parents à les accompagner à Davos, ou ils vont nouer une amitié encore plus forte, au cours de longues promenades dans les bois qui vont sceller leurs solitudes. Si Anton expérimente de terribles tourments psychologiques à l'idée de se produire en public dans des concours musicaux, Gustav de son côté vit une existence de profond désarroi avec une mère qui a perdu son emploi et dont les expériences amoureuses sont sans lendemain.
Les années ont passé, Gustav a ouvert un hôtel à Matzlingen, son village natal. Un jour Anton, devenu professeur de piano, viendra le rejoindre et ensemble ils partageront une existence enfin apaisée.
Traduit de l'anglais par Françoise du Sorbier
Bath, 1865. Jane, une jeune infirmière renommée pour ses talents extraordinaires, est convaincue qu'un autre destin se révèlera un jour à elle. Pourtant, lorsqu'elle se trouve écartelée entre une liaison sulfureuse avec une femme et la promesse d'un mariage conventionnel avec un médecin respectable, ses désirs l'orientent vers un avenir qu'elle n'avait jamais imaginé.Au même moment à Bornéo, un excentrique « radjah » britannique, Sir Ralph Sauvage, débordant de philanthropie mais empêtré dans ses passions, voit ses projets compromis par sa propre fragilité, l'avidité innée des hommes et l'irrésistible force de la jungle.La quête de Jane, en attente d'une vie différente, et les initiatives de Sir Ralph deviennent indissociables à mesure que le récit se déploie sur le globe. D'un salon de thé anglais aux forêts d'une île tropicale en passant par les taudis de Dublin et les magasins de costumiers libertins de Paris, un roman sulfureux, incandescent, inoubliable.Traduction de l'anglais par Françoise du Sorbier« Un nouveau grand roman historique de Rose Tremain.» Livres Hebdo« Havres de grâce se veut à la fois un hommage à l'univers feutré de Jane Austen et à celui plus tempétueux de Joseph Conrad. » Le Figaro littéraire
Dans ce récit charmant, intime, souvent émouvant, l'auteur retrace ses plus jeunes années jusqu'à ce qu'à l'âge de dix-sept ans elle s'émancipe de sa famille et vienne vivre à Paris.
Son enfance n'a pas toujours été heureuse. La petite Rosie et sa soeur Jo, ont été éduquées par leur Nanny adorée, Véra, seule adulte à leur avoir réellement donné l'affection et l'amour que leurs parents n'ont pas su leur offrir. Le père est absent, la mère, Jamie, au tempérament autoritaire, est distante, elle ne veut pas être dérangée. Pendant les longs séjours à la campagne, les adultes fument, boivent, jouent aux cartes, lisent le Times, font des mots croisés, en attendant les repas servis par les domestiques.
Heureusement, les vacances chez les grands-parents, dans la demeure du Hampshire, se déroulent dans la joie. Le lieu est un véritable paradis, les deux petites filles jouissent d'une grande libert. Il y a les cousins Jonathan et Rober et le jardinier, qui leur fait découvrir les beautés et les secrets du jardin.
Mais à l'âge de dix ans, tout change pour la petite Rosie. Elle perd son père, il faut quitter l'appartement de Londres, l'école, les amies, et le plus douloureux, sa chère Véra, qui lui a tenu lieu de mère.
Adolescente, elle part en pension en Suisse, apprend le français, fait les vendanges, apprend la sténo et la dactylo, fait du ski. Son éducation si parfaite la prépare à épouser un homme riche... elle ne songe pas encore à l'écriture, mais plutôt au dessin. Son voeu le plus cher : « Aller quelque part et trouver sa place dans le monde. »
En 1961, elle vient à Paris et s'inscrit à la Sorbonne. Son destin est tracé.
Robert Merivel, fils d'un gantier, étudiant en médecine rondelet et paillard, voit son destin bouleversé lorsqu'il est appelé à la cour du roi Charles II d'Angleterre. Il se glisse alors sans difficulité dans une existence faite de luxure et d'oisiveté et tombe sous le charme du souverain dont il devient le bouffon et l'un des favoris. Le voici propulsé au rang de « mari postiche » de la plus jeune des maîtresses du roi, en échange d'une superbe propriété dans le Norfolk.
Mais il va bientôt commettre l'irréparable en transgressant le seul interdit qui lui est imposé et sera brutalement rejeté de ce paradis qui venait de s'ouvrir à lui. C'est à travers la Grande Peste et le Grand Incendie de Londres en 1666 qu'il trouvera le chemin inattendu de sa rédemption.
Plein de verve et de couleurs, généreux et cruel à la fois, ce roman picaresque évoque bien souvent le fameux Tom Jones de Fielding.
Traduit de l'anglais par Gérard Clarence
Le mas Lunel, une vieille ferme de pierre isolée dans une vallée silencieuse. Aramon Lunel, son propriétaire, est un alcoolique invétéré hanté par un passé de violence qui l'a réduit à un état d'hébétude, dans lequel il laisse ses chiens de chasse mourir de faim et ses terres à l'abandon. Non loin de là, sa soeur Audrun, qui vit seule dans un pavillon modeste, rêve d'une redistribution équitable de leurs biens après les trahisons inavouées qui ont empoisonné sa vie.
Dans ce monde cévenol fermé débarque un jour Anthony Verey, un riche antiquaire londonien revenu de tout. Espérant trouver une nouvelle vie en France, Anthony commence à visiter des propriétés dans la région. Sa première visite au mas Lunel met en mouvement un engrenage d'événements aussi effrayants qu'inexorables.
Deux mondes et deux cultures s'affrontent alors. D'anciennes limites sont franchies, des tabous violés ; un crime est commis. Et tout au long figurent en toile de fond les Cévennes, dans leur rudesse et leur séduction, un univers rendu de façon inoubliable dans ce roman puissant et dérangeant qui révèle une nouvelle dimension de l'imagination extraordinaire de Rose Tremain.
Traduit de l'anglais par Claude et Jean Demanuelli
From the author of The Gustav SonataThe bestselling and much-loved classic from Orange Prize-winning Rose Tremain, Restoration introduces us to the young Robert Merivel and his rise and fall through glittering seventeenth-century society. Shortlisted for the Booker prize it has been described as 'triumphant' (Sunday Telegraph) and 'dazzling' (New York Review of Books).
When a twist of fate delivers an ambitious young medical student to the court of King Charles II, he is suddenly thrust into a vibrant world of luxury and opulence. Blessed with a quick wit and sparkling charm, Robert Merivel rises quickly, soon finding favour with the King, and privileged with a position as 'paper groom' to the youngest of the King's mistresses. But by falling in love with her, Merivel transgresses the one rule that will cast him out from his new-found paradise...Over a million Rose Tremain books sold'A writer of exceptional talent ... Tremain is a writer who understands every emotion' Independent I'There are few writers out there with the dexterity or emotional intelligence to rival that of the great Rose Tremain' Irish Times'Tremain has the painterly genius of an Old Master, and she uses it to stunning effect' The Times'Rose Tremain is one of the very finest British novelists' Salman Rushdie'Tremain is a writer of exemplary vision and particularity. The fictional world is rendered with extraordinary vividness' Marcel Theroux, Guardian
From the author of The Gustav SonataLev is on his way from Eastern Europe to Britain, seeking work. Behind him loom the figures of his dead wife, his beloved young daugher and his outrageous friend Rudi who - dreaming of the wealthy West - lives largely for his battered Chevrolet. Ahead of Lev lies the deep strangeness of the British: their hostile streets, their clannish pubs, their obsession with celebrity. London holds out the alluring possibility of friendship, sex, money and a new career and, if Lev is lucky, a new sense of belonging...Over a million Rose Tremain books sold'A writer of exceptional talent ... Tremain is a writer who understands every emotion' Independent I'There are few writers out there with the dexterity or emotional intelligence to rival that of the great Rose Tremain' Irish Times'Tremain has the painterly genius of an Old Master, and she uses it to stunning effect' The Times'Rose Tremain is one of the very finest British novelists' Salman Rushdie'Tremain is a writer of exemplary vision and particularity. The fictional world is rendered with extraordinary vividness' Marcel Theroux, Guardian
Salvatore, a young watchmaker from Italy, moves to London when the king of his hometown decrees that a period of twenty-six years is to be erased from history, never to be mentioned in public again. Since this constitutes the whole of period of his life Salvatore feels he has no choice but to flee. But in London, what challenges will this man face, who holds so deeply to the importance of time and identity?Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection Evangelista's Fan.
Repeatedly exhorted by a strange figure to remember unspecified facts about her life, Wallis struggles with a world of random, snapshot memories. Try as she might to remember her third husband, the dull little man with no name, it is deeper remembrances that engulf her on her death bed, blotting out the inconsequential details of her life.Part of the Storycuts series, this story was previously published in the collection The Darkness of Wallis Simpson.
McCreedy is forty-six and it's his birthday. His family are there to help him celebrate.Part of the Storycuts series, this story was previously published in the collection The Darkness of Wallis Simpson.
Badger is enduring his dull retirement but a chance letter from a wildlife sanctuary offers him the chance to lay some painful memories to rest.Part of the Storycuts series, this story was previously published in the collection The Darkness of Wallis Simpson.
With an Introduction by Peter TatchellWe're all something else inside...1952. Standing in a cold Suffolk field with her family, six-year-old Mary Ward has a revelation: I am not Mary. That is a mistake. I am not a girl. I'm a boy.So begins Mary's heroic struggle to change gender. Moving from the claustrophobic rural community of the 1950s to London in the swinging Sixties and beyond to the glitter of America in the Seventies, Sacred Country is the story of a journey to find a place of safety and fulfilment in a savage and confusing world.Over a million Rose Tremain books sold'A writer of exceptional talent ... Tremain is a writer who understands every emotion' Independent I'There are few writers out there with the dexterity or emotional intelligence to rival that of the great Rose Tremain' Irish Times'Tremain has the painterly genius of an Old Master, and she uses it to stunning effect' The Times'Rose Tremain is one of the very finest British novelists' Salman Rushdie'Tremain is a writer of exemplary vision and particularity. The fictional world is rendered with extraordinary vividness' Marcel Theroux, Guardian
From the author of The Gustav SonataWhen Erica March composes herself to die in a cupboard, she knows that Ralph Pears will find her. For at the age of 87, she had told the young journalist the richly colourful story of her life as novelist, political activist and, above all, lover, from childhood in Suffolk, Paris between the wars, to oblivion in post-war London. At the end of Ralph's patient probings only one secret remains: the mystery inside one constant object in her life - her cupboard.Over a million Rose Tremain books sold'A writer of exceptional talent ... Tremain is a writer who understands every emotion' Independent I'There are few writers out there with the dexterity or emotional intelligence to rival that of the great Rose Tremain' Irish Times 'Tremain has the painterly genius of an Old Master, and she uses it to stunning effect' The Times'Rose Tremain is one of the very finest British novelists' Salman Rushdie'Tremain is a writer of exemplary vision and particularity. The fictional world is rendered with extraordinary vividness' Marcel Theroux, Guardian
From the author of The Gustav SonataJoseph and Harriet Blackstone emigrate from Norfolk to New Zealand in search of new beginnings and prosperity. But the harsh land near Christchurch threatens to destroy them almost before they begin. When Joseph finds gold in the creek he is seized by a rapturous obsession with the voluptuous riches awaiting him deep in the earth. Abandoning his farm and family, he sets off alone for the new gold-fields over the Southern Alps, a moral wilderness where many others, under the seductive dreams of 'the colour', are violently rushing to their destinies. By turns both moving and terrifying, The Colour is about a quest for the impossible, an attempt to mine the complexities of love and explore the sacrifices to be made in the pursuit of happiness.Over a million Rose Tremain books sold'A writer of exceptional talent ... Tremain is a writer who understands every emotion' Independent I'There are few writers out there with the dexterity or emotional intelligence to rival that of the great Rose Tremain' Irish Times'Tremain has the painterly genius of an Old Master, and she uses it to stunning effect' The Times'Rose Tremain is one of the very finest British novelists' Salman Rushdie'Tremain is a writer of exemplary vision and particularity. The fictional world is rendered with extraordinary vividness' Marcel Theroux, Guardian
From the author of The Gustav SonataAfter the collapse of 'Aquazure', his swimming pool construction business, Larry and Miriam Kendall have exiled themselves to a sleepy French village. When Miriam is summoned to her mother's deathbed in Oxford, Larry begins to formulate a dazzling new idea: the creation of the most beautiful, the most artistic swimming pool of all. Around them, Rose Tremain weaves the intricate fabric of the lives of two communities: Miriam's mother, Leni, clever, beautiful and arrogant. Polish Nadia, tortured by the passions of her sad and guilty past. Gervaise the peasant woman - content with her boisterous German lover and confused husband. And the young tearaway Xavier, in love with the virginal Agnes.Over a million Rose Tremain books sold'A writer of exceptional talent ... Tremain is a writer who understands every emotion' Independent I'There are few writers out there with the dexterity or emotional intelligence to rival that of the great Rose Tremain' Irish Times'Tremain has the painterly genius of an Old Master, and she uses it to stunning effect' The Times'Rose Tremain is one of the very finest British novelists' Salman Rushdie'Tremain is a writer of exemplary vision and particularity. The fictional world is rendered with extraordinary vividness' Marcel Theroux, Guardian
Fat and fifty, educated only to be a wife and mother, Ruby Constad has reached a point of crisis. Her husband, Leon, lies in a nursing home after a stroke that has left him paralysed; her grown-up children are gone. In her anguish Ruby appeals for help to a half-remembered figure from her colonial Indian girlhood - Sister Benedicta. Gradually the events leading up to Leon's stroke are revealed and a woman emerges whose capacity to love, hope and understand are far greater than she realises.
From the author of The Gustav Sonata
Winner of the Whitbread Novel AwardIn the year 1629, a young English lutenist named Peter Claire arrives at the Danish Court to join King Christian IV's Royal Orchestra. From the moment when he realises that the musicians perform in a freezing cellar underneath the royal apartments, Peter Claire understands that he's come to a place where the opposing states of light and dark, good and evil, are waging war to the death.Designated the King's 'Angel' because of his good looks, he finds himself falling in love with the young woman who is the companion of the King's adulterous and estranged wife, Kirsten. With his loyalties fatally divided between duty and passion, how can Peter Claire find the path that will realise his hopes and save his soul?Over a million Rose Tremain books sold
'A writer of exceptional talent ... Tremain is a writer who understands every emotion' Independent I
'There are few writers out there with the dexterity or emotional intelligence to rival that of the great Rose Tremain' Irish Times
'Tremain has the painterly genius of an Old Master, and she uses it to stunning effect' The Times
'Rose Tremain is one of the very finest British novelists' Salman Rushdie
'Tremain is a writer of exemplary vision and particularity. The fictional world is rendered with extraordinary vividness' Marcel Theroux, Guardian
From the author of The Gustav SonataA stunning collection of stories: wide-reaching in subject and setting, each beautifully evoked and brilliantly imagined. Renowned opera singer Antonio Mollini begins construction on what he hopes will be the most beautiful garden in Italy, unaware that its development will have tragic consequence for both him, and his series of lovers. Elsewhere, a farmer's son has high hopes for his inheritance, a young girl dreams of following in the footsteps of a famous arsonist, and the pressure of the annual Gardening Cup exerts a heavy toll on seventeen-year-old Dougie.Over a million Rose Tremain books sold'A writer of exceptional talent ... Tremain is a writer who understands every emotion' Independent I'There are few writers out there with the dexterity or emotional intelligence to rival that of the great Rose Tremain' Irish Times'Tremain has the painterly genius of an Old Master, and she uses it to stunning effect' The Times'Rose Tremain is one of the very finest British novelists' Salman Rushdie'Tremain is a writer of exemplary vision and particularity. The fictional world is rendered with extraordinary vividness' Marcel Theroux, Guardian
At the moment that Colonel Browne is standing in the shallow end of the swimming pool of the Hotel Alphenrose, preparing for his late afternoon dip, his daughter Charlotte, carrying a suitcase, is getting out of her car back in England, preparing to rob the ancestral home. It is not just another day: it is the culmination of hundreds of days, hundreds of disappointments and misunderstandings, and thousands of very small lies...
From the author of The Gustav SonataWallis Simpson, the twice-divorced American woman for whom Edward Vlll abdicated in 1936, ended her life as the prisoner of her lawyer who would not allow anyone - friend, foe or journalist - to visit her in her Paris flat. Rose Tremain takes this true story and transforms it into an imaginative and ironic fiction. Her thesis is that Wallis, gaga and bed-ridden, has forgotten the king who gave up an empire for love of her. The other stories in this magnificent collection range over a variety of themes, equally original and unexpected. An East German border guard, redundant after the Berlin Wall comes down in 1989, imagines that he might still have a purpose in life: he tries to reach Russia by bicycling across the hostile wastes of Poland. A jilted man gets his revenge. A baby grows wings. A character in an Impressionist painting escapes from his 'frame' - or does he? And there's a Christmas story set in a seedy hotel...Over a million Rose Tremain books sold'A writer of exceptional talent ... Tremain is a writer who understands every emotion' Independent I'There are few writers out there with the dexterity or emotional intelligence to rival that of the great Rose Tremain' Irish Times'Tremain has the painterly genius of an Old Master, and she uses it to stunning effect' The Times'Rose Tremain is one of the very finest British novelists' Salman Rushdie'Tremain is a writer of exemplary vision and particularity. The fictional world is rendered with extraordinary vividness' Marcel Theroux, Guardian
From the author of The Gustav SonataIn Rose Tremain's teasing and brilliant title story, Evangelista's Fan set in a disturbing dreamlike version of Regency London, a young italian clockmaker contrives a magical means, not only of repairing time, but also of unlocking the mechanism of sexual happiness. This collection demonstrates the enormous range of her talent and imagination. Here is history - Agincourt as seen by the herald who rides between the two camps - alongside such contemporary issues as mortgage debt and medical error. Here are stories set in Cornwall, Corsica, Nashville, Niagara and an unidentified city which conjures up any and every Western European capital. Here are the obstinate dreams of the old and the passionate struggles of the young; here is heartbreak and humour; and here, above all, is love in its many and varied forms.Over a million Rose Tremain books sold'A writer of exceptional talent ... Tremain is a writer who understands every emotion' Independent I'There are few writers out there with the dexterity or emotional intelligence to rival that of the great Rose Tremain' Irish Times'Tremain has the painterly genius of an Old Master, and she uses it to stunning effect' The Times'Rose Tremain is one of the very finest British novelists' Salman Rushdie'Tremain is a writer of exemplary vision and particularity. The fictional world is rendered with extraordinary vividness' Marcel Theroux, Guardian
From the author of The Gustav SonataThis is the summer that Lewis Little, precocious thirteen-year-old, is spending in Paris with his mother, Alice. Alice is translating the latest medieval romance by Valentina Gavrilovich, the bestselling and exotic Russian émigré, Lewis is there to make his first acquaintance with one of the greatest cities in the world; neither can foresee the momentous events that lie in wait for them. Valentina slowly casts a spell over Lewis, but when her past begins to encroach on all their lives and, as this enchanted world is gradually lost, Lewis is driven on a terrifying quest.Over a million Rose Tremain books sold'A writer of exceptional talent ... Tremain is a writer who understands every emotion' Independent I'There are few writers out there with the dexterity or emotional intelligence to rival that of the great Rose Tremain' Irish Times'Tremain has the painterly genius of an Old Master, and she uses it to stunning effect' The Times'Rose Tremain is one of the very finest British novelists' Salman Rushdie'Tremain is a writer of exemplary vision and particularity. The fictional world is rendered with extraordinary vividness' Marcel Theroux, Guardian
From the author of The Gustav SonataToday is Jack Sadler's birthday. Or is it? He's not sure, he doesn't really care. It might be his last day or the beginning of a new chapter in his life. He must find the key to his old room. He knows the truth about his past lies there and somehow he must get in and confront it.Over a million Rose Tremain books sold'A writer of exceptional talent ... Tremain is a writer who understands every emotion' Independent I'There are few writers out there with the dexterity or emotional intelligence to rival that of the great Rose Tremain' Irish Times'Tremain has the painterly genius of an Old Master, and she uses it to stunning effect' The Times'Rose Tremain is one of the very finest British novelists' Salman Rushdie'Tremain is a writer of exemplary vision and particularity. The fictional world is rendered with extraordinary vividness' Marcel Theroux, Guardian
