Daughters of the House

The English writer Michèle Roberts wrote Daughters of the House. The novel is a narrative about provincial French Catholics in post-WWII Normandy and thirty years later. Cousins Thérèse and Léonie are the protagonists within the familial and village setting. The reader enters the intimacy of the girls' lives. We poach mackerel in the kitchen, experience sexual awakening, and celebrate the Virgin Mother in a nocturnal forest. Suspense is carried by random bits concerning a tragedy in the village's history. A further twist is the possibility of a secrecy in the cousins' background. The girls disentangle the web of events the years covered over.