Marie-Hélène Lafon
Originally from the Cantal, Marie-Hélène Lafon is a classics professor in Paris. All of her novels – including L’Annonce (2009) and Les Pays (2012) – have been published by Buchet Chastel. In 2009 L’Annonce was short-listed for the Renaudot Prize and won the Bookseller National Award, it was made into a TV movie in 2016. Her first novel, Le Soir du Chien, won the Renaudot des Lycéens in 2001. Joseph, in 2014, was short-listed for the Femina and Renaudot Prizes. In 2017, she published Nos Vies and the novel was namely supported by Delphine de Vigan in France. Her last novel, Histoire dufils has just been published by Buchet Chastel. ‘Alphonse’ appears in the collection Histoires, which was awarded the Goncourt de la Nouvelle in 2016 in a unanimous decision by the judges.
Marie-Hélène Lafon on Granta.com
Fiction | The Online Edition
Alphonse
Marie-Hélène Lafon
‘He was long and white; his hands especially were long and white, and he sewed; he looked after the linen; he worked as a woman would; he lived in the house; he didn’t speak, he was rarely spoken to.’
Translated from the French by Stephanie Smee.
