Sandrine Villers

Sandrine Villers

Holding a doctorate in comparative American literature and civilization from the Sorbonne and a Ph.D. in comparative film and literature from Tulane University in New Orleans, Sandrine Villers is a lecturer and researcher in American language and culture at Paris 8 University. She has published an essay, *La Société américaine dans le théâtre de Tennessee Williams* (2000), numerous academic articles on the films of François Truffaut and Hollywood, as well as several language textbooks. Following *Au Paradis goûtu* (2001), *New Orleans, Louisiana* (2007), and *Chansons douces* (2012), *Le Fève* is her fourth novel.

Available from April 1st

A body in a djellaba is found stabbed to death on a deckchair in the Paris region. Two people call the police. Each is surprised to learn that the other knows the victim. Who is she? What happened? What connects them to her? More than a police investigation, it's an introspective journey that unfolds, particularly through Daisy Whitaker Rivière, retracing her story, which began on the other side of the Atlantic in the 1980s. Who are we really? How can we ignore life's misfortunes, our linguistic errors, and our wrong turns? It all begins in the very first days of the first lockdown, when Daisy discovers her husband is cheating on her. Trapped between the four walls of their Parisian apartment with him and their two daughters, it is through both psychotherapy and the unexpected reading of her diary written over several decades that this fifty-three-year-old American woman will be able to find herself again… Between a painful past hiding a terrible secret, an uncertain present, and keys to rebuilding and loving herself, this book also aims to offer an original writing style blending reflections on our contemporary world, humor, and poetry.