Darren picked out a selection of three books he’d read for me to choose between and I picked this one to read. I did the same for him and he’s reading Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson.

I really enjoyed the beginning of this book with Thérèse marrying her dull cousin, living in a Paris haberdashery shop with her aunt and taking her husband’s friend as a lover. The lovers then plot to kill off the husband and the book gets increasingly depressing as they can’t live with the consequences of what they’re doing. I found the book a very easy ride at the beginning and increasingly more difficult to read and the story got into murkier waters. As usual with a translation I spent a bit of time wondering how much of the book was Zola’s and how much was the translator’s; less than I usually do though, I’m either getting more used to reading translated works or this was a good one.