Breathe

Told in a lucidly reflective style, this first person narrative is recounted by a 19-year-old Parisian, Charlene, who murdered her best friend when she was 16. Brasme takes us back to the time when the lonely, suicidal 13-year-old Charlene first encounters confident, domineering Sarah – the friend who appears to be her rescuer. Gradually Charlene gives up all her power to Sarah only to find herself abandoned as Sarah begins to be interested in boys. The cruelty of Sarah’s indifference does nothing to mitigate Charlene’s slavish devotion to her and Charlene becomes obsessed with her tormentor until the day when she decides that there is only one way to liberate herself from this fatal attraction. Not surprisingly, Charlene’s parents are shadowy background figures in her account as they are in her tormented inner world.

In this her first novel, 22-year-old Anne-Sophie Brasme’s account has immediacy and momentum reminiscent of the early novels of Françoise Sagan. Events draw inexorably nearer to their tragic conclusion driven by internal impulses that Charlene is powerless to control even when she understands them. Mulholland’s translation conveys well the intelligence of Brasme’s writing (‘My madness was enough for me. I needed no support, no love that did not come from Sarah.’) in this spare and gripping account. A substantial debut.