A scary, funny and ultimately very affecting novel…Tremain lets us glimpse the adult-in-waiting; reminds us that life – tinged with joy, sex, pain – takes its whole shape from such moments’
Julie Myerson, Mail on Sunday

A scary, funny and ultimately very affecting novel…Tremain lets us glimpse the adult-in-waiting; reminds us that life – tinged with joy, sex, pain – takes its whole shape from such moments’
Julie Myerson, Mail on Sunday

‘The Way I Found Her is a magical invention of page-turning suspense, of sadness, grief and passion, whose sure and delicate exposure of a sensibility flowering one hot Parisian summer teaches us the price of experience. Do not miss it’
Elizabeth Buchan, The Times

‘The Way I Found Her is a magical invention of page-turning suspense, of sadness, grief and passion, whose sure and delicate exposure of a sensibility flowering one hot Parisian summer teaches us the price of experience. Do not miss it’
Elizabeth Buchan, The Times

Kate Bland 08 December 2010

Lewis Little is the complicated 14-year-old protagonist in Rose Tremain’s poignant tale of young obsession. His story is set during the summer that he and his mother go to stay in Paris, in the opulent apartment of Valentina Gavrilovich, a grand and mysterious Russian novelist who writes Medieval romances. While his mother works on the translation of Valentina’s latest novel, Lewis occupies himself by playing chess and exploring the city – depicted beautifully through his inquisitive young eyes.

The portrayal of Lewis’ summer is both delicate and intense; as he falls into a pattern of familiarity with his new surroundings an acute attachment with their glamourous host creeps up and takes hold of him. Rose Tremain’s story of an infatuation is told with sensitivity and a twist when Valentina goes missing and Lewis decides that he is the only one who will be able to find her.