3.0
If You Cross the River
ByPublisher Description
From celebrated Belgian author Geneviève Damas, a modern fable about friendship, self-determination, and the power of words.
Illiterate, isolated, and held at arm's length by a bitter father, François Sorrente has spent his seventeen years within narrow confines. By day he tends the family farm's pigs; by night he manages the household chores. Still, François can't help but wonder about the wider world and his place in it. Who was his mother, who he remembers not at all? And why is the opposite shore of the river, where his beloved older sister disappeared many years ago, forbidden to him?
Propelled by curiosity, François turns to the eclectic denizens of his town to help make sense of these mysteries. He begins reading lessons with a melancholy curé, falls into an affair with a village woman, and affectionately confides his secrets to a velvet-eared piglet named Hyménée. As François questions both his origins and the course of his life, he begins to unlock the true story of his mother and sister, and comes to reinvent himself.
Exquisitely translated from the French by poet Jody Gladding,
is a magical debut.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesIf You Cross the River Reviews
3.0
“Longlisted for the 2020 PEN Translation Prize. Damas is a Belgian actress, and this is her first novel. It tells a coming-of-age story about a teenager who takes care of the pigs on his family’s remote farm. His mother has died, his sister has runaway, he seeks out reading lessons from the local priest in order to learn more about his mother, he has a pig as his best friend. The writing is lovely and lyrical at times, but many of the situations and characters seem stereotypical.”
About Geneviève Damas
is a Belgian comedian, playwright, and novelist. After completing a degree in law, she turned to theater and has also acted and directed. Her first novel,
, has received wide international acclaim and was awarded the Prix Rossel in Belgium and the Prix des Cinq Continents de la Francophonie, which honors the expression of cultural diversity and editorial work on the five continents.
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