Set in the early 50s,19 year old Opal has been married off to wealthy Helmut and lives an indulged existence in London. But when taken to Paris for a change of air, she encounters Jean-Claude: young, attractive, a composer living in a garret.
This book is not what you might imagine at first; far from being a light hearted account of teenage frolics on the continent, there is a very dark side as we get to know Jean-Claude's family, immersed in misery, and Jean-Claude himself, immoral, anti-Semitic, trying in vain to recreate his happy childhood...
The descriptions are exquisite and immerse you in the France (Paris, Provence and la Sologne) of yesteryear:
'The narrow street that led into the town was lined with tall, thin houses painted pale fruit colours- apricot, raspberry and greengage. Each had a balcony at first-floor level on which geraniums bloomed in old tins...I heard shop shutters shooting up, greetings being exchanged, children and dogs being admonished. Where the street broadened into a square, the houses were swathed in plumbago and bougainvillea growing valiantly out of the cobbled pavement.' ( )