Dahlia -

Flammarion

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  • Today, “Dahlia” by Delphine Bertholon, published on March 17, 2021 by Éditions Flammarion.

Caroklouk, film journalist and contributor to the

20 Minutes

Books

reading group

, recommends

Dahlia

 by Delphine Bertholon, published on March 17, 2021 by Éditions Flammarion.

Her favorite quote:

“Like all of us, I had to deal with lies.

I was guilty of it, I was a victim.

I'm talking about these terrible lies, the sequences of which far exceed the one who told them.

"


Why this book?

  • Because Delphine Bertholon delves into the psychology

    of her characters with tenderness but without sentimentality.

    You immediately feel close to your teenage girls torn between remnants of childhood and the beginning of adulthood.

  • Because the complexity of adolescence

    and the discomforts it generates are analyzed and transcribed with acuity.

  • Because delicate subjects are approached without bias

    or prejudice, inviting the reader to form their own opinion on the actions of the characters.

  • Because the story follows an implacable mechanism

    , without ever brushing the reader in the direction of the grain, but by abusing him on the contrary with palpable satisfaction.

    The outcome, painful, is a success.

    Delphine Bertholon does not like fairy tales.

    Me neither.

    To dare such an end does not lack panache.

  • Because the novelist offers many cinematographic references

    that are good for the film buff that I am.


The essentials in 2 minutes

The plot.

 Lettie, 14, thinks her friend Dahlia is leading a dream life with a perfect family.

Until the day when the latter confides in him a secret that shatters appearances.

Characters.

 Lettie, a teenager who would like to be somewhere else and another.

Her mother who raises her alone but not her father whom she has never known and of whom she knows nothing.

Dahlia, her best friend, a college girl who lives with her loving parents and two little brothers.

Places.

 Mainly the south of France.

Rouen too.

But that doesn't really matter.

The time.

 Early 1990s. Then later.

So much later.

The author.

 Delphine Bertholon wrote

Grâce

(2012),

Les Cœurs useless

(2015),

Cœur-sauvage

(2017).

She is also a screenwriter for

Madame Hollywood

and

Yes We Can

by Olivier Abbou.

This book left me with 

a bitter taste in my mouth

.

 I was shaken and surprised.

The novel fascinated me and made me very uncomfortable.

It is a compliment.

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