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Good Intentions

Good Intentions

by Adriana Hunter (Translator), Agnès Desarthe (Author)

  • Used

    Paperback 2002

    $3.48
Synopsis

a sly, wry novel about how hard it is to do good Sonia is finally settling down. With her husband Julian, she buys a flat in an apartment block in an up-and-coming quarter of the city. And she is pregnant with her first child. Family life begins and it feels good. Yet her new apartment, it is soon obvious, is not the haven she had hoped. And Sonia's beliefs in a decent, peaceful world, her disgust over racism, over poverty, soon make life very difficult for her as she allows herself to be drawn into a vicious and deeply unpleasant war between the odious apartment caretakers and a sad, lost widower who reaches out to her for help. When the threats and bullying slide beyond her control, Sonia is forced to realise that the cruelty of the world cannot simply be covered up with good intentions. With sly wit and a misleadingly light touch, Agnes Desarthe has created an unsettling picture of the world through an apartment building and shown how, with the best will in the world, it can sometimes be the hardest thing of all to tell the good guys from the bad guys.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 240
 Edition: New Ed
 Publisher: Flamingo
Published: 04 Nov 2002
ISBN 10: 0007100957
ISBN 13: 9780007100958

Media Reviews
'Desarthe's fourth novel is as sly and as subtle and as engrossing as her most recent, Five Photos of My Wife. But it does more than entertain and provoke, it speaks volumes about attitudes both private and public...intelligent, honest and unsettling.' Eileen Battersby, The Irish Times 'Desarthe deftly and mercilesly uses Sonia's ordinary desires and concerns to pave an elegant road to hell.' Alice Ferrebe, Scotland on Sunday 'Desarthe has a style...which is consistently beautiful.' Alan Gorham, Aberdeen Press & Journal from the French reviews for Good Intentions: 'Sonia's 'good intentions' are taking her straight to hell... Desarthe's previous novels have already shown how much her merry sadness recalls Isaac Bashevis Singer or Chagall. Here again, her down-to-earth realism is mixed with something of the supernatural. Le Monde 'Behind her deft wit, her more serious aspect, there between the lines, just visible, suddenly there is a terrifying drop.' Le Journal du Dimanche 'Delicate in aspect and resolute in profile, Agnes Desarthe draws herself up, all at once as timorous and reckless as a cat, on the threshold of every possibility, all antennae bristling. A lot cat and a little bit witch, Desarthe then slips soundlessly inside the heads of other people, to divine their innermost anxieties, both great and small.' Magazine Litteraire
Author Bio
agnes desarthe is a prize-winning, best-selling and much-loved author of fiction for children and adults in her native France. Her work is translated into all the major European languages. Good Intentions is her second novel for adults to be published in English.