Research Catalog

Title

My mother's tears / Michel Layaz ; translated by Tess Lewis.

Author

Layaz, Michel, 1963-

Publication

London ; New York : Seagull Books, 2019.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Lewis, Tess

Description

185 pages; 22 cm.

Summary

"With subtle, bemused humor and an unerring eye for human frailty, Michel Layaz writes about the hidden tensions within families, the awkwardness of adolescence, and the drama of intimacy between friends and lovers. The adult narrator has returned to clean out his childhood home after his mother's death. In thirty short chapters, each focused on a talismanic object or resonant episode from his childhood, the narrator tries to solve the mystery behind the flood of tears with which his strikingly beautiful, intelligent, and inscrutable mother greeted his birth. Like insects preserved in amber, these objects--an artificial orchid, a statue, a pair of green pumps, a steak knife, a fishing rod and reel, among others--are surrounded by an aura that permeates the narrator's life. Interspersed with these chapters are fragments from the narrator's conversation with his present lover, a woman who demands that he verbally confront his past. This difficult conversation charts his gradual liberation from the psychological wounds he suffered growing up. Not only an account of a son's attempt to understand his enigmatic mother, but also a moving novel about language and memory that explores the ambivalent power of words to hurt and to heal, to revive the past and to put childhood demons to rest."--Publisher.

Series Statement

The Swiss list

Uniform Title

• Larmes de ma mère. English
• Swiss list.

Alternative Title

Larmes de ma mère.

Subject

• Mothers and sons > Fiction
• Reminiscing > Fiction
• Mothers and sons
• Reminiscing

Genre/Form

• Fiction.
• Psychological fiction.
• Novels.

Note

• Translation of: Les larmes de ma mère.
• Originally published: Editons Zoé, 2003.

Language (note)

• In English; translated from the French.

Call Number

JFD 19-5252

ISBN

• 9780857426529
• 0857426524
• 9780857426710 (canceled/invalid)

OCLC

1090431682

Author

Layaz, Michel, 1963- author.

Title

My mother's tears / Michel Layaz ; translated by Tess Lewis.

Publisher

London ; New York : Seagull Books, 2019.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

The Swiss list

Swiss list.

Language

In English; translated from the French.

Added Author

Lewis, Tess, translator.

Translation of (work): Layaz, Michel, 1963- Larmes de ma mère.

Other Form:

ebook version : 9780857426710

Research Call Number

JFD 19-5252