Life, Only Better

Mathilde is twenty-four. She has abandoned her studies in art history in lieu of a menial job and lives in a house she shares with twin sisters. One day she forgets her bag in a café and a week later an unknown man returns it to her. Following this encounter, Mathilde decides to throw caution to the wind and change her life entirely.

Yann is twenty-six, a university graduate, unemployed. There may be better days ahead. Perhaps. While waiting for them, he works as a sales assistant in a home appliances store. He wouldn’t say he is unhappy. But sometimes when he is crossing a bridge over the Seine River at night, he imagines jumping. One day he does a favor for one of his neighbors and is asked to stay for dinner as thanks. The following morning Yann throws caution to the wind and decides to change his life entirely.

These two novellas by best-selling author Anna Gavalda’s are among her most moving and inspiring. Love in this book is a fragile emotion, easily ruined and eternally subject to the choices one makes in life. Gavalda’s great gift is in her ability to reach readers who will feel as if she is addressing them directly in a voice that is inventive, forceful, yet intimate. Life, Only Better is a touching cleverly crafted book about choices and their consequences.