Connemara

A French woman’s midlife crisis sets her off on a quest to recover the spirit of her youth in this pulsing novel of desire from Mathieu (And Their Children After Them). On the eve of her 40th birthday, Hélène, a wife and the mother of two daughters, finds herself nostalgic for the “vanished period” of her young adulthood. Despite a successful career, healthy children, and a handsome husband, she equates getting older to feeling like “something had been stolen from her.” Mathieu then jumps ahead five years, with Hélène suffering from burnout at work as her midlife crisis continues, prompting her to uproot her family from Paris and retreat to the part of northern France where she grew up. There, she embarks on an extramarital affair with Christophe, a former high school flame. Recently divorced, Christophe has dashed dreams of his own; his onetime aspirations of becoming a pro hockey player have vanished along with his hopes of keeping his marriage together. Vivid flashback sequences fill in the complicated histories of Hélène and Christophe: their accumulated disappointments, jealousies, betrayals, and hard-earned lessons. Mathieu makes life’s emotional precariousness and fading glory palpable. (Mar.)