Vanda by Marion Brunet
Set in Marseilles, this is the story of Vanda, a beautiful woman in her thirties, arms covered in tats, skin so dark that some take her for a North African. Devoted to her six-year-old son Noé, they live in a derelict shed by the beach.
She had wanted to be an artist; she is now a cleaner in a psychiatric hospital. But Vanda is happy living alone with her boy. “The two of them against the world”, as she says. Everything changes when Simon, the father of her son, surfaces in Marseilles. He had left Vanda seven years earlier, not knowing that she was pregnant. When Simon demands custody of his son, Vanda’s suppressed rage threatens to explode. The tension becomes unbearable, both parents fully capable of extreme violence.
About the author
Marion Brunet, born in 1976, is a well-known Young Adult and Literary Fiction author in France. Her YA novels have received over 30 prizes, including the 2017 UNICEF Prize for Youth Literature. Marion has previously worked as a special needs educator and now writes her fiction in Marseilles.
Vanda follows on from the success of Summer of Reckoning and is her second work to be translated into English.
About the translator
Katherine Gregor lives in London and has recently translated works by Alexander Pushkin from the Russian and plays by Carlo Goldoni and Luigi Pirandello from the Italian.
Review
‘Vanda’ is an unflinchingly honest look at a relationship between mothers and sons. But it's a dark tale albeit one full of love. I found it very compelling and loved the character of Vanda. She is a complex character, full of light and shades, shaped with empathy and full of nuances.
Vanda is a mother of a six-year boy called Noe and is devoted to him, he is her reason for getting up in the morning and submitting to societal demands. Vanda is a free spirit, one who doesn't prescribe to normal ideals, she lives in a hut on the beach, one that floods with high tides, throws beach parties, goes out drinking and leaves her son sleeping in the car... There is no denying that she loves Noe with all her heart though. When Simon returns to Marseille due to his mother's death he catches up with Vanda only to be told he is Noe’s father. He hadn't planned on having kids but once he knows he has to scratch that itch. He steadily becomes concerned with Vanda’s behaviour towards her son and this leads to the final showdown in the book.
The author can make the reader empathise with all parties in the book and that is a skill. There are personal reasons why I became engaged with the book though as there are parts of it where I can recognise parts of my childhood, albeit I always had a safe environment. But the hippy mum, check. Wild adventures, check. The love between Vanda and Noe, check. This is what shines off the pages - love and what makes this story special. It makes me think of Hideously Kinky in that sense.
I really enjoyed this one. Let me know if you read it.
