Beautifully crafted with that sense of unacknowledged tragic anonymity floating throughout the book. But the peak of Anne and Hartmann's affair goes downhill rather quickly. Faulks's writing is still ~amazing~ but seeing Anne slowly being reduced to some wispy footnote at the end felt more like an anticlimax, than a touching ending. ( )

Girl meets boy in the aftermath of the war.

You know which war.

Boy is actually an older married man.

Unhappily married, of course.

Girl and unhappily married man begin an affair.

Girl reveals a terrible family secret from the war.

Older married man ends the affair.

British author recycles these cliches.

The cliches gain a certain sheen because the setting is France.

I am partial to French settings.

Still, the whole thing is one big cliche.

With a French setting.

So cliche. ( )

"What if all our lives are just a circle where at a certain point you cross an unseen tripwire that sets spinning the same process again?"

One rainy night young Anne Louvet arrives by train in the provincial French city Janvilliers to take up the post of waitress at the city's Lion d'Or. Anne is attractive and intelligent but there is a sense of mystery in her background as we learn early on the Louvet is not her real surname. Arriving in the city not knowing anybody Anne soon finds herself courted by local architect and playboy Andre Mattlin but instead finds herself attracted to married lawyer Charles Hartmann. Charles lives in an old mansion, which he is hoping to renovate, on the outskirts of the city with his barren and unhappy wife Christine. Charles reciprocates Anne's interest and takes her away for a weekend at the country house of an old friend. Once there their relationship turns sexual and Anne tells Charles the secret of her tragic life thus far in which she has been subjected to hardship and abandonment.

Charles feels himself torn by his love for Anne and the sympathy for her tumultuous up-bringing and the duty he feels towards his wife. Someone is going to be face devastation but will it be Anne or Christine?

Set in the 1930's the country is still struggling to overcome the physical and political scars of WWI and the rise of the Nazi party in Germany all add to the anxiety especially as the despicable Mattlin points out Charles is partly Jewish. The weakness of France’s governments; and the true horror of Anne’s girlhood secret all blend into a powerful story.

In truth there is not an awful lot of action rather this book concentrates on character development. It would be easy to feel sorry for Anne and that Charles has abused his position and wealth to take advantage of her loneliness but instead we end up almost palpably feeling Charles struggles with his conscience, he must decide between love,pity and duty. Any fan of John Fowles 'The French Lieutenant's Woman' will almost certainly also enjoy this as each contain certain obvious parallels.
This wasn't my favourite of Faulk's works that I've read but is a well crafted and touching read all the same. ( )

I have to agree with the Sunday Times' review; it is "extraordinary (and unexpectedly) moving" at the end. ( )

An easy and enjoyable read. A love story plus a very interesting depiction of the political milieu of pre-WWII France, but with several flaws. I found the characters a bit unconvincing and their motivations false, e.g. Hartmann (a married man) takes Anne (a poor waitress) away on a weekend out of the "kindness of his heart" -- come on! There were also some undeveloped lines in the story, such as the allusions to Hartmann's Jewish grandfather by one of his supposed friends that never goes anywhere. ( )