1986: Adrien, Etienne and Nina are 10 years old when they meet at school and become inseparable. They promise each other they will one day leave their provincial backwater, move to Paris, and never part.
2017: A car is pulled up from the bottom of the lake, a body inside. Virginie, a local journalist with an enigmatic past, follows the case. Step by step she reveals the extraordinary bonds that unite the three childhood friends. How is the car wreck connected to their story? Why did their friendship fall apart?
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This morning, Nina looked at me without seeing me. 1
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(@EuropaEditions, 5 May 2022, ebook, 630 pages, copy from the publisher, translated by Hildegarde Serle)
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I really enjoyed Three. It is a dense novel and it's been ages since I read a proper door-stop so it took a few chapters for me to relax into the rhythm of the book. I really enjoyed the fact the story moves back and forth in time. I love a non-linear narrative as you're never sure where the next chapter will take you. I loved the way the author depicts the friendship between Adrien, Etienne and Nina and explores this across years. The book does have some dark moments when the body is found in 2017 and the impact of this on the three friends now and the secrets at the core of their shared past. This is mesmerising.
