Sundays in August, sunning on the beach in Brittany, are calm and peaceful. They are the exception. The rest of life, or at least the lives of our principal characters, is anxiety-filled, not knowing if retribution for past crimes is more likely than current threats. And always there is uncertainty over whether the Southern Cross diamond is their salvation or their doom. Sylvia is inclined to the former view, Jean suspects the latter. They can’t both be right.

Patrick Modiano weaves another atmospheric drama out of reminiscence and regret. And a certain, possibly implausible, device of faulty memory. When Sylvia’s ex-husband discovers the pair in Nice, it isn’t his potential indignation that has them worried. He is just a harbinger of worse things to come. But from which direction?

It’s a brief read but very taut and there is a wonderful appearance of Sylvia’s mother-in-law, in flashback, towards the end. Now she would have been a compelling character to build a thriller around!

Easily recommended. ( )

Sundays in August embodies the dreamy quality of a memory from the past, but a beguiling memory with a hint of danger, and told with scintillating detail. Then a mystery emerges from the past, hints of which have been dropped in place throughout the story, and dreaminess gives way to something more sinister.

As in many of Modiano's stories, one man is left to unravel what details he can and try to make sense of what went on in the past, in this case his own. Of interest, the title is the last three words of the novel. ( )

Hypnotic, ambiguous, this is a slow-burner of a book that plays with your mind; Modiano is a master of place and he builds a complex narrative that weaves back through time to slowly reveal essential parts of the plot. If you like your books neatly tied up with string and signed off with everything explained, this is not for you. It's complex and makes the reader have to work to try and figure out answers, but in a beautifully languid, almost dreamlike way. A different setting from his normal Paris-based books, I really enjoyed it. ( )

A slow moving, triste, majestic pace. Very atmospheric. Fraught with regrets.

Très fin, ce roman se lit comme un policier : les personnages se rencontrent sur un fin et le lecteur doit retracer leur parcours pour comprendre la complexité des émotions. ( )