What do you do when the love of your life dies?
Monsieur Lemonnier completely adores his wife. He spends every second with her. The only thing that their relationship misses is a baby. The couple has been desperate to expand their family for years — to no avail. So when his wife falls pregnant, things seem too good to be true.
Until she dies in childbirth.
Monsieur Lemonnier transfers the love he had for his wife onto his son, believing him to be perfect also. Then a shocking revelation changes absolutely everything.
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) was one of the finest practitioners of the French short story. He was considered a master of both style and dramatic narrative. A representative of the Naturalist school, he wrote 300 short stories during his career — alongside a number of novels, travel books, and a volume of verse. The most notable of his work is considered to be his first short story — ‘Boule de Suif’. His volumes of short stories were heavily influential, with one of them acting as inspiration for John Ford’s ‘Stagecoach’.
