Your Promise - by Camille Laurens (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

An ingenious legal thriller in the vein of Anatomy of a Fall, this gripping story of a writer's toxic relationship exposes the gap between who we are and who we seem to be.

When novelist Claire Lancel's relationship with Gilles Fabian began, it felt like a dream, an idyllic love story. 6 months in, during a romantic dinner by the sea, he asked her to make him a promise, which she did: She would never write about him.

Why, after years together, is Claire finally breaking her promise? What could have happened in their relationship that brought her to the witness stand, defending herself in court?

Through Claire's own testimony and the conflicting accounts of friends, Your Promise offers a brilliant reconstruction of a crime, and a stinging portrayal of modern narcissism, characterized by a lack of empathy.

Review Quotes

Praise for Little Dancer Aged Fourteen

"A fascinating hybrid...of art history and art appreciation, a personal narrative that reads like a novel...quixotic, but also magical." --The New Yorker

"[Laurens's] curiosity is contagious, and after reading this elegant pas de deux between the author and her elusive subject, you will surely look at Degas's celebrated tutu-clad ballerina with fresh eyes...moving...Laurens's artful achievement is to make us see the person behind Degas's famous sculpture." --NPR

About the Author

Camille Laurens is an award-winning French novelist and essayist. She received the Prix Femina, one of France's most prestigious literary prizes, in 2000 for Dans ces bras-là, which was published in the United States as In His Arms in 2004. Her previous books include Who You Think I Am (Other Press, 2017), Little Dancer Aged Fourteen (Other Press, 2018), and Girl (Other Press, 2022). She lives in Paris.

Adriana Hunter studied French and Drama at the University of London. She has translated more than ninety books, including Marc Petitjean's The Heart: Frida Kahlo in Paris and Hervé Le Tellier's The Anomaly and Eléctrico W, winner of the French-American Foundation's 2013 Translation Prize in Fiction. She lives in Kent, England.