The price of water in Finistre - Bodil Malmsten

"In the same way as there's a partner for every person, there's a place. All you have to do is find the one that's yours among the billions that belong to someone else, you have to be awake, you have to choose." With this conviction in mind, the central character of this engaging and profound novel by acclaimed Swedish writer Bodil Malmsten abandons her native country at the age of 55 to settle in Brittany. For six months she is mind-lessly happy. Then, one fateful February day, she promises her elegant neighbour Madame C to write about her beloved "bit of paradise".
At the heart of this portrait of a new life is the conviction that the happiness to be found in Finist-re will not allow itself to be, cannot be, expressed in writing. Embroidered around this seeming paradox are poignant, outraged and thought-provoking observations on the widest range of subjects: how not to buy plants, the elicit pleasures of bargain-hunting, the misery of writer's block, social democracy, racism everywhere, tulipomania, the stubbornness of bank managers, the controlling of moles and slugs, death, political hypocrisy, the delights of wild weather. Malmsten's passion and humour shine through every episode she describes, however minor, offering the reader a window onto a solitary life at once touching, thought-provoking and, occasionally, hilarious.