num_pages: 216
description:  For forty years Charles Alavoine has sleepwalked through his life. Growing up as a good boy in the grip of a domineering mother he trains as a doctor marries opens a medical practice in a quiet country town and settles into an existence of impeccable bourgeois conformity. And yet at unguarded moments this model family man is haunted by a sense of emptiness and futility. Then one night laden with Christmas presents he meets Martine. It is time for the sleeper to awake.
language: English
title: Act of Passion
publisher: New York Review Books