Double crossings - Yvette Rocheron

Set in the vivid landscapes of southern France, this well-crafted novel tells a touching and powerful story of an Anglo-French couple’s move from Leicester to the Languedoc.William uses his laptop diary to find his feet in an alien culture, playfully mixing fact with fantasy, sharp observation with comic exaggeration. When Francoise, apparently flourishing in the small-town politics of Forac-Montjoie, reads her husband’s diary and reflects on her life, the tone darkens. Meshing the two voices, the tension builds to a tragic denouement during the week of the July 2005 London bombings.A colourful cast ranging from upper-class ex-pat neighbours, a wise old Leicester Hindu, a seductive young schoolteacher of mysterious parentage, a xenophobic detective inspector, a distinguished abortionist, a family of North African Muslims, a stroppy email lover and a story-telling Chinese pig help to reveal the love and deceits of the Beauchamps’ marriage as a metaphor for the promise and ‘double crossings’ of migration in the modern world.‘Where would she find the real William? In his close observation or the fantasy? And the more she read, the more she had this sinking feeling that, contrary to her expectation, the diary might not bring her nearer to him.’