Author: Anne-Laure Bondoux

Translated from the French by Y. Maude

ISBN: 978-0-385-90390-5

(Originally published in France in 2004 by l’école des loisirs under the title La Vie Comme Elle Vient.)

Anne-Laure Bonoux’s LIFE AS IT COMES is a stellar work. The characters are brilliantly conceived, the plots are skilful and the writing is beautiful, even in translation.

LIFE AS IT COMES  tells the story of two sisters, a seventeen year old Patty Yolinski, who the older sister and who is flighty and irresponsible, with bleached hair, pierced ears and colourful toe nails. She loves to paint her toenails the color of her daily moods.

Fourteen year old Mado is the younger one and is the exact opposite personality, studious, responsible with her feet on the ground. Their parents die in a car crash and a judge reluctantly appoints Patty as the guardian of her younger sister, Mado.

Anne-Laure Mondoux treatment of their sorrow is heart wrenching. In her grief, her boyfriend Luigi consoles Patty and she inadvertently becomes pregnant. She tries to hide her pregnancy until she departs with her sister Mado to the family country house in Ardèche where there is no phone, no TV, and the neighbours are miles away.

Their only neighbours within a short distance are a Dutch family, Britt and her two sons Daan and Sander. Daan is Patty’s age and Sander is closer in age to Mado.

Up until their neighbours return home to the Netherlands, they girls enjoy relative happiness.

After they leave, Mado reaches “the abyss of pain when she enters her parents’ room” while Patty starts to have birthing pains.  Not only does Mado help her sister give birth to a lovely boy, but Patty pushes Mado to take charge of the baby and runs away. Luigi, still in love with Patty, shows up at their doorstep… Will the baby dampen their bereavement? Will Mado be able to have her own life?

This delicately nuanced story of love, loss and redemption is engrossing from the first sentence to the last. Teenagers and adults will enjoy every word of  LIFE AS IT COMES.

Anne-Laure Bondoux has a great gift for characters and in the sad story of the Levinsky girls (Life as it Comes)- it shines. Anne-Laure Bondoux is also the author of The Killer’s Tears, The Destiny of Linus Hoppe and The Second Life of Linus Hoppe.

The above review was contributed by: Lily Azerad-Goldman: Artist: CLICK TO VIEW Lily Azerad-Goldman's Reviews