Madame
- 24 May 2004
- 9781841955209
- £12.99
- 448 pp
- 130×198mm
- 25 Jan 2018
- 9781786893369
- £8.79
- 448 pp
In a few words
A winning portrait of an artist as a young man, Madame is a moving novel about strength and weakness, first love, and the efforts we make to reconcile, in art, the opposing forces of reason and passion
In a few words
A winning portrait of an artist as a young man, Madame is a moving novel about strength and weakness, first love, and the efforts we make to reconcile, in art, the opposing forces of reason and passion
Essentially a vision of a life-changing teenage crush, Libera's debut novel . . . captures the frustrations of grasping for anything of the world from behind the Iron Curtain and of battling or passion of any kind.
Madame is skilfully written and the subtle backdrop of communism is interesting and convincing.
Essentially a vision of a life-changing teenage crush, Libera's debut novel . . . captures the frustrations of grasping for anything of the world from behind the Iron Curtain and of battling or passion of any kind.
Madame is skilfully written and the subtle backdrop of communism is interesting and convincing.
More about
the book
Madame tells the story of a self-absorbed Polish teenager as he pursues intellectual maturity, and the woman of his dreams, his French teacher ‘Madame’, in the communist-dominated Warsaw of the early 1970s.
Libera paces his exuberant young hero’s fulminations, fantasies and discoveries beautifully, building a remarkably subtle characterisation of a free mind in a repressive culture. This is one of those rare novels which reminds us why we love books. A consummate literary entertainment.
More about
the book
Madame tells the story of a self-absorbed Polish teenager as he pursues intellectual maturity, and the woman of his dreams, his French teacher ‘Madame’, in the communist-dominated Warsaw of the early 1970s.
Libera paces his exuberant young hero’s fulminations, fantasies and discoveries beautifully, building a remarkably subtle characterisation of a free mind in a repressive culture. This is one of those rare novels which reminds us why we love books. A consummate literary entertainment.
This is an old story made fresh with an excellent evocation of a spirit-crushing school system - a microcosm of communist rule under which the layers of life are corrupted by concessions, compromises and deceptions.
This is an old story made fresh with an excellent evocation of a spirit-crushing school system - a microcosm of communist rule under which the layers of life are corrupted by concessions, compromises and deceptions.
