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Happy people read & drink coffee / Agnès Martin-Lugand.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublisher: Crows Nest, N.S.W. : Arena, an imprint of Allen & Unwin, 2016Description: 259 pages ; 21 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781760291549
Other title:
  • Happy people read and drink coffee
Uniform titles:
  • Gens heureux lisent et boivent du café. English
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Summary: Diane is the owner of Happy People Read and Drink Coffee, a literary café in Paris. When her husband and daughter die in a car accident, her life is overturned and the world as she knows it instantly disappears. Trapped by her memories, she moves to a small town on the Irish coast. There she falls into a surprising and tumultuous romance with Edward, a taciturn photographer who lives next door.
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Fiction Davis (Central) Library Fiction Collection Fiction Collection MAR Available T00608109
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The international bestselling novel about Diane, a French woman who moves to the Irish coast after a terrible tragedy and begins a tumultuous but ultimately healing relationship with a brooding Irish photographer.

Originally published in France by Editions Michel Lafon in 2013 as Les gens heureux lisent et boivent du café.

Diane is the owner of Happy People Read and Drink Coffee, a literary café in Paris. When her husband and daughter die in a car accident, her life is overturned and the world as she knows it instantly disappears. Trapped by her memories, she moves to a small town on the Irish coast. There she falls into a surprising and tumultuous romance with Edward, a taciturn photographer who lives next door.

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Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Attempting to escape her grief over the deaths of her husband and daughter, Diane puts her business, a Parisian literary café, into her partner's care and retreats to a small village on the Irish coast to heal and attempt to rebuild her life. There, Diane meets photographer Edward. They fall in love, but she once again runs away, this time returning to Paris and her café. The story ends without resolving the question of whether she and Edward can find a way to bridge the distance between them. Mia Barron's (A Certain Age) strong, smooth, nicely paced reading draws listeners into the story. A French author and clinical psychologist, Martin-Lugand (Happiness Slips Through My Fingers) has written a story rife with emotions as Diane and Edward work through grief, pain, fear, and their search for love. VERDICT Will appeal to those interested in romance or stories of those recovering from personal tragedy. ["Essential for any foreign literature or women's fiction collection": LJ 3/1/16 review of the Weinstein hc.]-Laurie Selwyn, formerly with Grayson Cty. Law Lib., Sherman, TX © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

It's been a year since Diane's husband and small daughter died tragically, and she hasn't left her Paris apartment. Her friend Felix has been running their bookstore café, Happy People Read and Drink Coffee, into the ground. Her parents and in-laws think she simply needs to move on. That doesn't seem possible, but one day she decides to move to Ireland, choosing the spot by placing her finger on a map. There, the volatile weather, the tiny village, and a hostile neighbor all contribute to her cigarette- and wine-fueled return to life. She makes bad decisions, makes better decisions, and navigates her revised existence mostly on her own. The movie rights to this translated novel have already been sold, and a sequel is imminent. For readers of women's journeys and tales of hope, this slim volume engages thoughts and feelings without whitewashing grief.--Moroni, Alene Copyright 2016 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

After losing her husband and child in a car accident, the owner of a Parisian literary cafe moves to the Irish coast and falls in love with her neighbor in this uplifting travel fantasy. Diane's cottage in Mulranny is an idyllic backdrop for a romance to unfold over long walks on dramatic seaside cliffs or pints of Guinness in a cozy pub where the cheerful villagers all know each other by name. Noticeably missing from the picture is her love interest, Edward, who lives next door but who only appears every so often to yell at Diane to turn down her "damned music" or to ask her to watch his dog, Postman Pat, while he leaves town for several weeks. But their reticence is part of the story's authenticity as well as its charm. Diane seems to get a cathartic release from turning her music back up and shouting in his face. They form a tentative friendship as Diane pulls herself together in other areas of her lifeafter her parents comment on her lack of independence, for example, Diane learns how to check her darkened cottage for a blown fuse. But Edward reveals his tender side when an old girlfriend appears on his doorstep. There's a heart-rendingly awkward pause while they both decide how to proceed, knowing that both of their hearts might still belong to someone else and that Diane will eventually return to Parisa cliffhanger ending for Edward that will be explored in the sequel. But like its heroine, the first book in the series doesn't attempt to do too much, too soon. Martin-Lugand's sparse but emotionally forceful style, aided by Smith's translation from the original French, catches the sweeter moments between two people embittered by loss. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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