Follows three friends - and their overlapping social and family circles - through their day-to-day lives, their perceived struggles and successes and their search for meaning. This work also presents a portrait of a particular place at a particular moment, and an illustration of how the events of a single day can change everything for ever.
In Manhattan, just after the century's turn, three thirty-year-old friends, Danielle, Marina and Julius, are seeking their fortunes. But the arrival of Marina's young cousin Bootie fresh from the provinces forces them to confront their own desires and expectations. this work presents a portrait of one of the most fascinating cities in the world.
Emmy believes she makes her own luck. She grasped at her first sign of good fortune and left for Australia. Her sister Virginia doesn't believe in luck. She made no more than a brief foray to the other side of the city. The sisters made their choices, made steady worlds for themselves. But now, middle-aged, they find these worlds disintegrating.
Observed with a fifteen-year-old's regard for truth, this is a novel about secrets and ghosts, love and honour, the stories we tell ourselves and the lies to which we cling. It tells the story of the teenage Sagesse LaBasse and her family, French Algerian emigrants haunted by their history.