The People in the Photo by Hélène Gestern

 

My branch library is only a few blocks away, which makes it a key destination whether I’ve gone walking on the beach or biked over to the produce market. Did I mention that my branch is newly renovated with a view of the ocean and huge windows that let the sun stream through?

Like a good bookstore, I can’t seem to pass by without popping in see what’s on the new arrivals shelf.  I have a miniature library card on my key ring in preparation for any serendipitous book finds.

The People in the Photo was just such a find.  The cover drew me in and the book was on it’s way home with me after this blurb:

The chance discovery of a newspaper image from 1971 sets two people on the path to learning the disturbing truth about their parents’ pasts.

Parisian archivist Hélène takes out a newspaper advert calling for information about her mother, who died when she was three, and the two men pictured with her in a photograph taken at a tennis tournament at Interlaken in 1971. Stéphane, a Swiss biologist living in Kent, responds: his father is one of the people in the photo. Letters and more photos pass between them as they embark on a journey to uncover the truth their parents kept from them.

Epistolary novels are one of my favorite literary genres, but it’s a difficult writing style to pull off.  Often it can be gimmicky, but when done well — riveting.   Hélène Gestern has achieved the latter, all the more impressive as a translated French novel.

The story unfolds in a mixture of letters, emails and texts between Hélène and Stéphane as they uncover and exchange  photos and revelations about their respective parents.

The characters evolve, as does their relationship, through their correspondence.  At first they are reserved and cautious which we discover is due in large part to the secrets and unresolved feelings of their childhoods.  But as they uncover new family histories, they also begin to share their feelings and soon develop a relationship they both believe will save them.  But, perhaps, these discoveries are revealing a truth they don’t want to accept…

This is a quick read – not only because of its page-turning story line, but many pages contain only a short email or text.  When I turned the last page of The People in the Photo, I turned back to the beginning to re-read parts of it again.  I wanted to revel in the craft of the author – how carefully the characters are developed, the teasing bits of secrets revealed and the import of each piece of correspondence.  In the end, I reluctantly returned this engaging novel to the library —  but its impression remains.