Clara Reads Proust

Like many Millennials who came of age in the era of Amelie, I’ve been an avid admirer of French literature and cinema for most of my adult life. And as a voracious reader, it thrilled me to no end when I picked up Clara Reads Proust and discovered a beautifully moving story about the life-changing potential of a really good (French) book.

Clara works as a stylist at the Cindy Coiffure salon down a winding side street in Chalon and spends her days with the kinds of wonderfully eccentric people you’d expect to populate a sleepy little French town. With a lackluster relationship with her on-paper perfect boyfriend stumbling on day after day, and the regulars at the salon seemingly content to share the same complaints over the same haircuts week after week, Clara wonders if this is all there is to life.

That is until a stranger leaves behind a copy of In Search of Lost Time by Proust on her counter and Clara’s sense of the world and her place in it is changed forever. Delightfully tender, this book is a poignant coming of age story for those who believe in the power of a good book.