The Longe (2025), Sarah Jollien-Fardel

Every morning, upon waking, Rose, the narrator of Sarah Jollien-Fardel’s powerful second novel, struggles not to be overwhelmed by the stark reality in this wood-paneled room where she now lives, tethered by a rope.

Rose went mad with grief three years ago when police officers came to tell her of the death of her little girl, Anna. She couldn't overcome this pain, to the point of becoming a danger to herself and others, to the point of remaining tethered and reclusive.

Life was joyful before the accident. Rose remembers her childhood in a mountain village, punctuated by the phrase inscribed on a beam in her beloved grandmother's bistro: "You are of a species that loves light and hates night and darkness." Her immediate friendship with Camil, the little boy who used to spend his holidays in the highlands, who much later became her husband and unwavering support; their readings and walks in the heart of a sumptuous nature; the birth of their child; their beloved professions—he an architect, she an osteopath. A seemingly uneventful life, in which Rose, dwelling on the past, tracks down the flaws, she who never recovered from the long-unexplained death of her own mother on the day of her first communion. She is also consumed by the remorse of not having truly wanted Anna's arrival.

Rose's memories will gradually, in a breathtaking narrative, reveal to us the circumstances of the accident and those of her own reclusion.

But, the day Rose, suddenly perceiving an unknown presence behind her closed door, hears phrases from a Marguerite Duras book filtering through the wall, we, the readers, have an intuition that light might prevail…

Sarah Jollien-Fardel, by the way she chooses to save her character from herself, offers us a magnificent denouement, commensurate with her masterful portrait of a woman.

@font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}@font-face {font-family:Garamond; panose-1:2 2 4 4 3 3 1 1 8 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 2 0 0 159 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; text-autospace:none; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-font-kerning:0pt; mso-ligatures:none;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}