Un certain sourire

Dominique, a Parisian law student in her late teens, is calmly involved with a boy her own age named Bertrand when she meets his uncle Luc, a married man in his forties. Their affair begins almost casually, and Luc's wife Françoise, who is warm toward Dominique, becomes part of the story when the two spend a stretch of time together on the Riviera. Sagan writes in short, cool sentences about a young woman who watches her own feelings with an observer's detachment, then discovers that a relationship she thought was light leaves a mark.

Read this for a compact novel of manners and heartbreak, close in spirit to Bonjour Tristesse. Anyone who likes French fiction about desire, boredom and the aftermath of an affair can finish it in an afternoon.

Inward-looking and thought-provoking; an easy read.

Best for readers like The Empathetic Explorer. Which reader are you?