Catherine Certitude

Patrick Modiano, Jean-Jacques Sempé(Illustrator)

A classic French story from Nobel Prize-winner Patrick Modiano and celebrated illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempé.
Beautifully illustrated, this is a love letter to Paris, ballet and childhood for fans of The Little Prince, Le Petit Nicholas and Madeline.

Catherine lives with her gentle father, Georges Certitude, who runs a shipping business in Paris with a failed poet named Casterade. Father and daughter share the simple pleasures of daily life: sitting in the church square, walking to school, going to her ballet class every Thursday afternoon. But just why did Georges change his name to Certitude? What kind of trouble with the law did Casterade rescue him from? And why did Catherine's ballerina mother leave to return to New York?

Translated by William Rodarmor

Reviews

"Elegant. Apparently simple and transparent nostalgia belies its sophistication of observation. Deftly characterised illustrations."
Books for Keeps

"What particularly engages is the way Modiano captures memories of childhood: fragmented, misunderstood, but glowing in the crucible of recollection"
Booklist

"Really affecting"
Bookbag

"Feather-light illustrations. This lovely book suggests the delicacy and strength of an eggshell."
Publishers Weekly online

"Ravishing artwork. In surrendering our old certitudes, we may win insights that make our lives more fully human and humane in the present."
The Boston Globe