Victorine

By: Catherine Texier

Narrated by: Josephine Bailey

In this lush, lyrical, and marvelously evocative novel, Catherine Texier takes a mystery from her family's past and draws from it a portrait of a remarkable woman, her great-grandmother Victorine. A young schoolteacher in a quiet province in France, Victorine had married and had two children. But when she falls desperately in love, she makes a startling choice, leaving her family for her lover and a new life in Indochina.

On a single day in 1940, as Victorine reflects on her past, we travel back with her, from the willow-lined canals of her childhood home in Vendie to sun-drenched days and languorous nights along the Mekong River at the dawn of the 20th century. Hers is an unforgettable story of adventure and self-discovery, of a woman's struggle between duty and independence, tradition and freedom, longing and regret.

©2004 Catherine Texier

Critic reviews

"A steely, delicate fictional tale....Texier offers seamless transitions between the past and present." (Publishers Weekly)
"With lush, vivid description, Texier brings to life both the world around Victorine and the woman herself." (Booklist)

Mon Dieu no passion

Ok I admire the author for writing about her great grandmother. HOWEVER, how you can take a time like the turn of the century, in Indochina, and a love that rips a family apart and make it so undiscriptive, I will never know. This author , probably without meaning to , has painted her gg as a person who is never satisfied even with the man she loved. She must have driven him mad with her constant second guessing. We are only unhappy when we settle for less. I am sure her grandmother was a fine person, but she is painted as an unsettled whiner. May a film director can take this story and make it good by adding soul and color as they ;did for "The Lover", it is not here by this author , in this book.