Sarah Jollien-Fardel – författare

In 1970s Switzerland, high up in the Valais mountains, is a village where everyone knows everything, and no one says anything.Jeanne learns from an early age to dodge her father’s abuse, but her mother and sister resign themselves to his brutality. One day when she is eight he attacks her viciously, angered by her self-assurance. Convinced that the village doctor will put an end to their nightmare, she is shocked by his silence.From then on, Jeanne’s hatred of her father and her disgust at the doctor’s cowardice drive her on. At boarding school she experiences five years of respite, but is then triggered by an unbearable replica of the violence that started it all. Moving to Lausanne, unable to come to terms with her past and to engage fully with life, she nevertheless finds solace in the arms of lovers and in the waters of Lake Geneva, while further tragedy fuels her rage.My Favourite is a powerful novel about departure and return, of love, guilt and shame, and the paralysing effects of trauma. Sarah JollienFardel forcefully describes the price to be paid for Jeanne’s hard-won emancipation, as history inexorably repeats itself.

Three years ago the police came to her door with the tragic news that her precious daughter, Anna, was dead. In her grief she collapsed into a state of near-death and turned away from everything she held dear. Gradually, we begin to understand what brought her here, to this mountain hut.Life before was simple and beautiful; home was a village high up on the Swiss Valais slopes. There, she first met Camil, her future husband, steadfast in his love and support. They shared the same love of books, exploring the rugged yet welcoming Alpine valley. They meet again later as students in Lausanne, marry, build careers. Anna comes along. Rose recalls a life of quiet happiness, while desperately trying to grasp the threads of the madness that brought her to the room where she is tethered. One day, Rose hears an unknown voice behind the door: a woman is reading to her. And for the first time, we feel that Rose may yet find her way out of the darkness. Tether is a powerful novel of violence contained, a superb portrait of womanhood and motherhood, and a deeply touching account of the extremes to which love can take us.