The Alphonse Courrier Affair

Alphonse Courrier possessed all that might make a modestly ambitious man content: a respectable position in his Auvergne village; a prosperous ironmonger’s shop; a dutiful, beautiful wife, Agnes, who bore him two sons; and a secret mistress, Adele. But fate has a way of dealing you the joker just when you think you hold all the best cards. Assuredly, the villagers could continue to indulge in their favorite blood sport — gossip — but some secrets are too well guarded for even the best of gossips.

In The Alphonse Courrier Affair, Marta Morazzoni has identified the dynamic undercurrents that surge beneath the placid surface of daily life and exposed them to a quizzical, amused, devastating gaze that will exhilarate any reader who enjoys filling in the gaps of what the author has left unsaid.