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by Boomert - Valley of Grace by Marion Halligan 11 Jan 2010
Marion Halligan’s intoxicating novel of love and children relates the interwoven lives of a group of friends and family members in contemporary Paris. Fanny and Gerard are a couple whose love is in full bloom, even as they seem unable to have children. Fanny’s employer, Luc, has no trouble with love, but his partner Julien is finding sex outside the relationship. Philosophy professor, Jean-Marie, receives the carnal attentions of his female students in an arrangement that his wife accepts out of a sense of duty, leaving a tragic trail of unwanted children in his wake. Meanwhile, Agnes and Claude are two lesbians who dream of having children of their own. Valley of Grace explores the links between love and sex, family and friendship, and emotion and personal responsibility. From the Left Bank bookshops to the apartments and renovated old estates of the suburbs, the book drips with the tastes, sights and smells of France. Yet it’s a satisfying, original, unpretentious novel filled with everyday characters and refreshingly commonplace observations. There is terrible sadness and loss, but there is also rebirth and possibility of happy beginnings. If you like Paris, babies or relationships (or literary novels), you’ll probably enjoy it. A definite pick for Mothers’ Day.

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine (March 2009, Vol 88, No 6.) is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker.

Author Biography: Marion Halligan
Marion Halligan is an award-winning novelist, essayist and short-story writer with many prizes to her name, including The Age Book of the Year, the ACT Book of the Year, the Nita B. Kibble Award, the Steele Rudd Award, the Braille Book of the Year, the 3M Talking Book of the Year and the Geraldine Pascall prize for critical writing. She has also been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the Dublin IMPAC Prize and the Miles Franklin Award. Her previous works include The Point, The Fog Garden, A Taste of Memory, The Apricot Colonel and Murder on the Apricot Coast.

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