La Maison vide

La Maison vide is a family saga and a meditation on memory that covers a hundred and fifty years in the life of a rural French family. It opens in 1976, when the narrator’s father reopens a long-abandoned house and uncovers traces of a buried past: a piano, a Légion d’honneur medal and photographs that have been defaced. Three women dominate the story: Marie-Ernestine, a thwarted musician; Marguerite, whose head was shaved at the Liberation and who withdrew in shame; and Jeanne-Marie, an authoritarian mother and keeper of appearances.