The Four Sides of the Heart

“Four Sides of the Heart” is the last novel by Françoise Sagan, who died in 2004. Her son Denis Westhof discovered a typewritten copy with insertions and corrections in the writer’s archive. It is a novel written in a free, unrestrained manner, with surprising mastery and attention to human passions. The author’s intelligence, sense of humor, and elegance of style allowed her to convey the dramatic turns of the plot in such a vivid and concise way that the reader enjoys immersing themselves in the atmosphere of this unfinished—and therefore so stirring—story. The son of a wealthy industrialist, Louis Cresson, recovering from the consequences of a car accident, is surprised to realize that the household watches him with caution, as if he were nervous and ill, while his beloved wife Marie-Laur actually despises him. The situation changes when a beauty arrives from Paris—Fanny, the mother of Marie-Laur. To convince everyone of Louis’s recovery, the Cressons throw a grand reception at their estate, while passions meanwhile flare higher and higher.