Agatha by Anne Cathrine Bomann

In the suburbs of 1940s Paris, a psychiatrist discovers he is not too old for something new. This universal story of loneliness by Danish author Anne Catherine Bomann was a word-of-mouth international bestseller, translated into 22 languages. The charm of this story won me over.

A psychiatrist counts the days until his retirement at 72. He has done everything in his power but wonders if he has really helped his patients. Twenty-two weeks and 800 sessions to go. Madame Surrugue has run his office meticulously for over thirty years, but they have no relationship outside. He is not taking new patients when a troubled young German woman insists on having an appointment. Madame Surrugue fits her in anyway; she has nowhere else to go. A pale, dark-haired woman in clothing too big for her spindly body, Agatha is in need of someone to listen. Her melancholy adolescence led to ECT therapy when she was perhaps just depressed. She wishes to be erased, but she still needs to function. He advises how to see herself, but never considered that he also might be struggling. Talk is transformative for them both; the world opens up around him. He greets his longtime neighbour for the first time, and when Madame Surrugue's husband falls ill, he visits for frank conversation. He discovers a deep desire to mean something to someone, and every moment there is the chance to do something you can be proud of.

This has a disarming tenderness that is appealing. They travelled far from where I met them, their transformations natural and uncalculated. Some comments resonate with me still - how you can feel utterly unique yet completely irrelevant at the same time.

Seductive, tender, bittersweet - all those type of words. A pleasure to read.

2017 / Tradeback / 160 pages