Vérité et amour by Claire Legendre

Abstract

<p><em>Vérité et amour</em> is Claire Legendre’s ninth publication and seventh novel. It is a first-person narrative made up of 89 brief chapters. Francesca, the narrator, moves to Prague with her husband—nicknamed “vice-consul” and whose name readers never learn (20)—shortly after Nicolas Sarkozy’s election. The novel ends during the “printemps d’érable” in Québec and on the night François Hollande is elected president (the final chapter, “Le changement,” undeniably echoes the latter’s campaign slogan). Because of its episodic structure, <em>Vérité et amour</em> reads like a cathartic diary where Francesca depicts her life abroad: the dissolution of her marriage, her becoming a free-lance teacher of French, her making friends, or her unfulfilled affair with a student, Roman Svoboda. Some chapters take a third-person perspective and focus on auxiliary characters. However, they might be interpreted as the narrator’s projections.</p>