Awards

• Short-listed for Scott Moncrieff Prize 2020

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9780993009396

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Reviews

'Every so often a different creature darts into view: a novel that is genuinely original - and, often, very quietly so. Call it the anglerfish of literature, after those solitary, crazy-looking lurkers in the sea's deepest trenches. The strangeness of such stories isn't just at the level of construction; it emerges from the writer's very perception of the world and seeps into the syntax. Prim and racy, seriously weird and seriously excellent-The Governesses is not a treatise but an aria, and one delivered with perfect pitch.' (The New York Times). 'Each sentence evokes a dream logic both languid and circuitous as the governesses move through a fever of domesticity and sexual abandon. A sensualist, surrealist romp.'- Kirkus Reviews. ``Ines, Laura and Eleonor are not exactly Jane Eyre types. This could be the set up for a neo-pagan farce, but as Serre delves into the three women's existence, the novel taps into deeper, quieter waters: the Keatsian twinning of joy and melancholy. Serre's wistful ode to pleasure is as enchanting as its three nymph-like protagonists.' - Publishers Weekly, starred review.`Brutal and effervescent, The Governesses is a systems novel, in the guise of a postmodern fairy tale, a twisted take on the battle of the sexes, a Dionysian mystery in sheep's clothing. This haunting and compulsive read, imbued with an uncanny intensity, in an unforgettable introduction to Anne Serre's work.'- Alexandra Kleeman. `The story, classical in appearance, soon jolts us out of our sleepy ways.' - Le Monde. '`A cruel and exhilarating book. Anne Serre's style is perfectly controlled. Colorful, by turns elegant and violent, it provokes that enchantment borne out of an unbridled imagination.' (Marie-Claire)

'Each sentence evokes a dream logic both languid and circuitous as the governesses move through a fever of domesticity and sexual abandon. A sensualist, surrealist romp.'- Kirkus. ``Ines, Laura and Eleonor are not exactly Jane Eyre types. This could be the set up for a neo-pagan farce, but as Serre delves into the three women's existence, the novel taps into deeper, quieter waters: the Keatsian twinning of joy and melancholy. Serre's wistful ode to pleasure is as enchanting as its three nymph-like protagonists.' - Publishers Weekly, starred review. The work is written with the elegance of old French fables: one reviewer wrote of the book's deceptively simple words and phrasing, the transparency of which works like a mirror reflecting back on the reader. `Brutal and effervescent, The Governesses is a systems novel, in the guise of a postmodern fairy tale, a twisted take on the battle of the sexes, a Dionysian mystery in sheep's clothing. This haunting and compulsive read, imbued with an uncanny intensity, in an unforgettable introduction to Anne Serre's work.'- Alexandra Kleeman. `The story, classical in appearance, soon jolts us out of our sleepy ways.' - Le Monde

Author Information

Anne Serre is the author of fourteen books, as well as numerous short stories and essays, and the recipient of a 2008 Cino del Duca Foundation award. Her first novel Les Gouvernantes was praised in La Croix for 'its remarkable economy of style and in Liberation as 'a delightful Sabbath'. From its publication in 1992, till 2000, she worked under a pseudonym as book editor of a leading magazine for women.

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