The list of my desires
By: Gregoire Delacourt ; translated from the French by Anthea Bell
Contributors: Bell, Anthea, translator
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; Orion Publishing Group, Limited
Published: 2013
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 214
ISBN-13: 9780297868354; 9780297868378
Copyright date: 2012
Subjects: Married women; Fiction; Dressmakers; Life change events
Work titles: Liste de mes envies
Description: What would it take to change your life? Jocelyne is 47. She lives in a small provincial French town, runs her own dressmaking shop, has been married to the same man for what seems like an eternity, has had two children and lives a very ordinary existence. In fact so ordinary that she is beginning to wonder what happened to her, to all those dreams she had when she was seventeen. Then comes the chance to change her life completely - but should she? For when Jocelyne begins to look at her life and its small pleasures - her friendship with the twins who run the hairdresser next door, her weekends away, her sewing blog - she realises that maybe ordinary isn't so bad. Until the decision is take out of her hands ...
Notes: Translated from the French by Anthea Bell.

Translated from the French.
Table of contents: title: Jocelyne is 47 and runs her own dressmaking shop. She's a bit overweight, her husband is very ordinary and her best friends are the twins who run the hairdresser next door. Jocelyn has reached the point where she is examining her life and measuring it against what her teenage self had imagined. We discover that Jocelyn's mother dropped dead suddenly when she was 17, and her father fell ill shortly afterwards, so she had to take the job in the shop rather than pursue her dreams. But then is she really unhappy? She has her weekends away, her friendships, her sewing blog, her work and its small pleasures ... Then the twins persuade Jocelyn to enter the euromillion lottery and she wins 18 million euros. She could do anything with the money, change her life completely, but what does she really want? She doesn't tell anyone about the win ... not just yet ... Without cashing the cheque she begins to write down her 'list of desires'; title: a new coat, a bathmat, a visit to her daughter in England. She goes in to the Chanel shop in Paris, thinking she could buy anything she wants but will a new bag really make her any happier than the sandwich her husband prepared for her that morning. Meanwhile, her dressmaking blog is taking off, helping Jocelyn to help other women. But then the question is taken out of her hands when someone close to Jocelyne acts with devastating consequences ...