Maud Ventura

2 months ago | publishersweekly.com | Ally Malinenko |Liz Parker |Aaron Curtis |Maud Ventura

Linda Epstein, Ally Malinenko, and Liz Parker. Kensington, $28 (368p) ISBN 978-1-4967-5025-9Queer authors Epstein (Repairing the World), Malinenko (This Appearing House), and Parker (In the Shadow Garden) sparkle in this delightful feminist retelling of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. By taking the focus away from Alcott’s heroine, Jo, to tell the story from the alternating perspectives of Meg, Beth, and Amy, the authors offer new depth to the characters.

Aug 12, 2023 | straitstimes.com | Maud Ventura |Emma Ramadan |Elijah Wong

My HusbandBy Maud Ventura, translated by Emma RamadanThriller/HarperVia/Hardcover/272 pages/$28.99/Amazon SG (amzn.to/442QSP6)4 starsMaud Ventura’s 2021 debut novel My Husband begins with a statement that is often a harbinger of trouble in paradise: “We need to find a moment to talk.”Those dreaded words from her husband send the unnamed narrator, a 40-year-old Frenchwoman who works part-time as an English teacher and English-French translator, into a spiral.

Jul 14, 2023 | shelf-awareness.com | Paul G Tremblay |Andrew Ridker |Maud Ventura |Emma Ramadan

Does a commitment to doing good deeds entitle a person to some ethical leeway? The question is teased in Hope, Andrew Ridker's loving and hilarious satire of liberal pieties, starring the Greenspans of Brookline, Mass., who--despite seeming to have it all--make choices that risk it all for that elusive American-branded commodity: happiness. Scott Greenspan has a successful cardiology practice.

Jul 7, 2023 | startribune.com | Maud Ventura |Emma Ramadan |Laurie Hertzel

"My Husband" is a short French novel about obsession, mind games and gaslighting masquerading as love. It unfolds over the course of a week, one chapter per day, narrated by an unnamed 40-year-old married woman with two children. The narrator works as a teacher and translator, but it is her husband's behavior that she spends most of her time trying to interpret.

Jun 2, 2023 | publishersweekly.com | Harold C. Rogers |Adrienne Brodeur |Maud Ventura

Jennifer Cody Epstein. Ballantine, $28 (336p) ISBN 978-0-593-15800-5This beautifully crafted historical from Epstein (Wunderland) evokes the cruel and misogynistic mental health system of late 19th-century Paris. After Laure Bissonet’s father dies in debt, his house is seized, leaving Laure without a home. She has a breakdown and lands in the hysteria ward of the Salpêtrière, Paris’s massive asylum for women. She recovers, but lacks the skills necessary for employment beyond the asylum.