A Good Life by Virginie Grimaldi – a Review

Amazon / B&N / Kobo / Google Play / Apple / BAM

Description:
Full of humor and compassion, a profound exploration of sisterhood, healing, and the ineffable beauty of life from France‘s most beloved contemporary novelist

Laughter, tears, the transformative power of love, unexpected revelations, and striking natural these are the ingredients that combine to make best-selling author Virginie Grimaldi’s American debut the feel-good read of 2024. Grimaldi is among France’s top ten contemporary authors and her uplifting, unputdownable literary novels have quickly garnered her millions of adoring fans. This, her American debut, is among her most delicately wrought and emotionally compelling novels to date. 

Emma and Agathe are sisters. They were thick as thieves when they were young but have always been as different as can be. Agathe, the younger sister, is disorderly, chaotic, and fiery. Five years older, Emma has always been the more mature sister, the defender, the protector, the worrier. Their relationship as adults is scarred by a tragedy that transformed their happy, ordinary childhoods into something much more complex and challenging. For a long time, Emma hasn’t wanted to be involved in Agathe’s life. But then they must return together to the Basque Country, to the house of their adored grandmother, to empty out her home and in the process to reconcile, to remember, and to pour out what is in their hearts. 

The story alternates between Agathe and Emma’s childhood and their present day, with everything in between, and readers see them as young girls, teenagers, young women, mothers, wives, partners, individuals, sisters. This is a story that encompasses whole lives, complex lives, women’s lives, asking all the while how the scars of the past can be healed and what, in the end, is a good life.

Review:

A Good Life by Virginie Grimaldi is a family-oriented story that centers around two sisters, Emma and Agathe.  Virginie Grimaldi is a famous author from France, and this book was brought into America, as her debut. Both sisters as young children were close, but as they grew older, things slowly fell apart. Emma is the oldest, with Agathe being 5 years younger. A Good Life is told via flashbacks, from the each of the girl’s earlier and present years.

Emma is the mature sister, always protecting and defending her, especially Agathe’s wild and reckless escapades. Agathe has always had many ups and downs, with Emma dedicated her life to protecting her younger sister, sheltering her from the worst of their mother’s fits of anger.  Emma always made sure during the summers to spend most of their time with their beloved grandmother’s house near the ocean, giving them a reprieve.

After many years being distant, their beloved grandmother passed away, and they decide to meet and help clean up their grandmother’s house, as it has been sold. In the process, the memories of their childhood help them reconcile and bring them closer, with all the scars of the past.  They enjoy that one week vacation, enjoying the town and ocean, and discover all that they lost; with a new bond bringing them back.

A Good Life is an emotional story of love, heartbreak, grief, mental health and the ins/outs of their dysfunctional family. The book continually alternates between both Emma and Agathe in the past and present, as we learn everything about them during their troubled days, as their younger selves, grown women and sisters.  A Good Life was very well written by Virginie Grimaldi. 

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher