See You Soon
Originally À tout de suite
Grasset
“She was a pain in the arse. But she was my pain in the arse. And I will miss her terribly.”
Says Daphné at Père-Lachaise, standing before her grandmother's coffin Régine: the legendary Queen of the Night, the inventor of the modern nightclub, the former lavatory attendant who became a successful singer, the woman who built an empire of nightclubs across the world and a kitsch Parisian icon.
But also a failing mother, a megalomaniac, a ruined woman, bitter at having been relegated to the status of has-been.
Daphné loved her. Hated her. Admired her. Ran away from her. At times, she forgave her, only to resent her all over again.
Through Régine's final days and an impossible funeral, this book tells, above all, the story of a family who doesn't know how to love, where wounds are passed from one generation to the next, and where a father hands down to his daughter his own damaged bond with his mother.
An intimate, funny and cruel account of what we inherit in spite of ourselves, and of the light we sometimes manage to salvage from the wreckage.
French edition (Grasset). The English edition, See You Soon, will follow.
Praise
“Every family has its own language. Daphné’s makes for compulsive reading.”
Richard E. Grant “Hilarious and deeply moving – this book grabs you and doesn’t let go. Daphné drops you into the heart of this relationship and makes you feel you are utterly part of it – I could not put this down. One of those rare ones.”
Vanessa Kirby “Irreverent. Hilarious. Heart-breaking. Romantic As if Renoir and Lautrec had been there. As if Paris held its breath. Triumphant.”
Stephen Frears “See You Soon is a disarming exploration of the impact, for better or worse, of a massive matriarchal presence on the lives of a granddaughter and her father. Entertaining, sensitive and wryly humorous, it is a fascinating read and, indeed, will make a wonderful film. I can’t wait to see who will play ‘Régine’.”
Brendan Gleeson “How we make sense of life and loss and love and laughter, when the leavings come so quickly and sharply and then again, so slowly and endlessly, is the stuff for poets and musicians and artists and filmmakers and authors like Daphné Rotcajg to work out for us. In her breathtaking debut, À tout de suite, we can all relate and rejoice in those complicated dichotomies and feel not so alone with our feelings.”
Jamie Lee Curtis