Description
‘Dear Jenny,
You won’t believe this. I’m really living in Paris now. Here’s the new address and I can see the trees in the Luxembourg Gardens on the card. Living in Paris is everything I dreamed about. Gérard is even more than I dreamed about. One day I’ll tell you about him. I’m in love in Paris. Can you believe it? Not sure I can. Keep pinching myself and beaming at strangers. Smile for me won’t you. Love, Win.’
How much effect can chance and chaos have on one woman’s life? Win returns to New Zealand after more than twenty years living in Europe. Why did she leave so suddenly after her studies, and why has she left her settled life in Paris? The novel traces her life in both places, and her present search for her roots, revealing old friendships and incidents that have brought her to a time of resolution.
‘This interplay between the naivety and innocence of Win and her friends in the early 1960s and their much more worldly condition in the late 1980s creates a tension which is sustained throughout… The writer is intimate with French culture and language and has deployed this intimacy to good effect.’ Graeme Lay.
‘Butterfly Mind threads it way through time, countries and events with the delicate touch hinted at in the title and the precise clean prose I have come to expect and admire from the author.’ Bron Deed.
‘…the contrasts and comparisons between life in France and New Zealand are particularly interesting.’ Dr Cathie Dunsford.
Gwenyth Perry lives and writes in Auckland, and travels to Singapore and France whenever possible. She has stories in all three collections of New Zealand short short stories and has gained a number of prizes. Her writing has been published in both New Zealand and Singapore. Her novel, Throuwing Stones, was published in 1998.
Paperback, 184 pages. Collectible. In very good preloved condition with the exception of a few bottom right page corners turned back.
