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Beside the Sea (Peirene Press #1)

by Véronique Olmi, Adriana Hunter (Translator)

4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 · rating details · 202 ratings · 55 reviews

A single mother takes her two sons on a trip to the seaside. They stay in a hotel, drink hot chocolate, and go to the funfair. She wants to protect them from an uncaring and uncomprehending world. She knows that it will be the last trip for her boys.

Beside the Sea is a haunting and thought-provoking story about how a mother's love for her children can be more dangerous tha...more

Paperback, 119 pages

Published September 25th 2012 by Tin House Books (first published 2002)

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Jul 10, 2008 Nina Mielke rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Eine Frau unternimmt mit ihren zwei Kindern eine Reise ans Meer. Lange müssen sie mit dem Bus fahren, in der Hoffnung wirklich dort anzukommen, wo sie hinwollen. Die Frau beschreibt diese Reise voller Regen, Schlamm, aber vor allem voller Schmerzen.
Eine Weile versucht man noch dahinter zu kommen, was es mit dieser Reise auf sich hat und man denkt, man kann das Ende erraten, doch bald ist man überzeugt, dass niemand erraten kann, wie dieses Buch ausgeht.
Verrückterweise hat sich bei mir nah den er...more

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Mar 16, 2013 Kathleen Jones rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A brilliant but disturbing book. This isn't a novel to read if you're depressed, but it's a book you should read. I found it disturbing and very moving. It was apparently a 'controversial' best-seller in France. Narrated in the first person, vernacular, it's the story of a young, single mother, who is struggling to cope - with her two little boys, with her own mental health, social workers, teachers, and inadequate money. We are totally inside her world and her head. It makes gut-wrenching readi...more

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Mar 29, 2011 Nurture Waratah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, drama

Beside the Sea is a translation of a French book Bord de Mer, the first novel from acclaimed dramatist Véronque Olmi. First published in 2001, this novel has been translated into all major European languages. On the surface, this seems to be a sweet story about a mother taking her children on a trip to the seaside. However, digging a little deeper reveals a darker undercurrent. This is no joyful jaunt to sun, surf and sand. Instead, we discover a deeply disturbed mother, already on the edge, afr...more Beside the Sea is a translation of a French book Bord de Mer, the first novel from acclaimed dramatist Véronque Olmi. First published in 2001, this novel has been translated into all major European languages. On the surface, this seems to be a sweet story about a mother taking her children on a trip to the seaside. However, digging a little deeper reveals a darker undercurrent. This is no joyful jaunt to sun, surf and sand. Instead, we discover a deeply disturbed mother, already on the edge, afraid for the life of poverty and exclusion that she fears her boys are destined to lead. Determined to give them at least one happy memory, she takes them on a holiday that she cannot afford and has not properly planned.

We are introduced to the two little boys, Stan and Kevin, through the eyes of their mother allowing us to develop a proxy parental concern for them. The story is told from within their mother’s mind but she remains nameless, allowing us to feel empathy for her while still keeping her at arms distance.

Seeing the experiences of this family through the eyes of the boys gives a sense of wonder and delight, but the covering veil of the mother’s thoughts and emotions and the constant presence of rain gives the story a continual sense of darkness that leads to a disharmony – a sense that something is not quite right.

As a mother who has experienced the depths of depression, I can totally relate to this mother’s concerns and despair when she considers sending her boys out into this dark and dreary world. But the very fact that I am lucky enough to be on the road to recovery makes the climax of this book all the more tragic. There, but for the grace of the Gods go I.

At only 111 pages, Beside the Sea is quite short, but don’t let that fool you into believing that it is a light read. It is not. This story will have you delving into the deepest, darkest parts of your soul and some may not like what they find.

Overall, this is a superbly written book with a small but well-developed cast. The author’s theatrical influence can definitely be felt in the vividly described scenery and clear transition between scenes.

Despite the quality of the writing, Beside the Sea is not for everyone. Delving into the dark side of motherhood, coupled with a deeply disturbing climax, could be upsetting to many readers, particularly parents. For those brave enough to read this book, I highly recommend picking up a copy. It is very much worth it. (less)

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Jun 28, 2010 Holly marked it as to-read · review of another edition

From Musings - 4.5 stars

From the opening sentence, I knew there was something different about this book: We took the bus, the last bus of the evening, so no one would see us. I was instantly intrigued and wary. Why would a mother and her two young sons want to leave home unnoticed? The bus takes them to a seaside town, to fulfill the mother’s wish that her boys see the ocean. The nameless mother provides the narrative, and the more I lived inside her head, the greater my fear and trepidation. It...more From Musings - 4.5 stars

From the opening sentence, I knew there was something different about this book: We took the bus, the last bus of the evening, so no one would see us. I was instantly intrigued and wary. Why would a mother and her two young sons want to leave home unnoticed? The bus takes them to a seaside town, to fulfill the mother’s wish that her boys see the ocean. The nameless mother provides the narrative, and the more I lived inside her head, the greater my fear and trepidation. It’s clear she loves her sons, and wants to preserve their childhood as long as possible:

he jumps onto my bed and asks me to give him a farty kiss, that’s a big kiss on his tummy which makes a lot of noise and it makes him laugh so much you wouldn’t believe it, it’s like he’s laughing to hear himself laugh, that he’s making the most of that laughter, having fun with it, and I know that a laugh like that runs away the minute you grow up. (p. 32)

But little by little, the story reveals a troubled soul. The holiday is stressful in the way holidays with young children can be. The weather is horrible, and she must deal with two little boys, cooped up in a sixth-floor hotel room accessible only by stairs. But she is also overcome by anxiety and paranoia. Having scraped together all the spare change in the house to spend on treats, she is convinced local merchants are looking down on her for paying with coins instead of notes. Eventually her anxiety gets the better of her, and she escapes into sleep, leaving the boys to fend for themselves in the hotel room:

I left everything, left that town and myself along with it: my body was weightless, painless, I sank into something soft and I shed my fear and anger, and my shame too. I went to a world where there’s a place kept for me. Not asleep and not awake, I’m a feather. Not asleep and not awake, but I come undone, I sprawl out look a cotton reel unwinding. Why did I topple over the edge then? Why did I start to dream? (p. 59)

The young family’s loneliness and desperation was so sad, and I was completely immersed in the mother’s unraveling. But I still gasped out loud when the novella reached its inevitable climax. This is a beautifully written story, but one that will haunt me for quite some time.
(less)

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May 21, 2010 David Hebblethwaite rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the launch title of Peirene Press, a new publisher specialising in English translations of short European works. And what a book to begin with. Véronique Olmi’s Beside the Sea, first published in France in 2001, and now available in Adriana Hunter’s superlative translation, is the story of a single mother taking her two sons to a seaside town. But all is not as happy as it sounds. Here is how Beside the Sea begins:

We took the bus, the last bus of the evening, so no one would see us. The

...more

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Mar 21, 2010 Andrew rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A mother takes her two young sons on a trip to the seaside. Sounds nice, doesn't it? There's even a bucket and spade on the cover. You can almost feel the warmth of the sun on your skin, hear the brass band playing a cheery tune. But this is not a nice little feel-good story about a trip to the sea. There's no sunshine, no brass bands, no sandcastles and laugher and sticks of rock. To get an idea of what this book is like, imagine that idyllic seaside trip viewed through a fun-house mirror - eve...more

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Sep 08, 2012 Joanne Sheppard rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Beside The Sea took me barely more than hour to read - it's only about 120 pages long - and I do think this intense, claustrophobic novella is best read in one sitting. Written by French author Veronique Olmi, the story takes place over 24 hours in the lives of an unnamed mother and her two boys, Stan and Kevin, beginning with her taking them to the seaside on an overnight bus, having suddenly decided that it's essential they see the sea for the first time.

If, like me, you find the opening ten m...more Beside The Sea took me barely more than hour to read - it's only about 120 pages long - and I do think this intense, claustrophobic novella is best read in one sitting. Written by French author Veronique Olmi, the story takes place over 24 hours in the lives of an unnamed mother and her two boys, Stan and Kevin, beginning with her taking them to the seaside on an overnight bus, having suddenly decided that it's essential they see the sea for the first time.

If, like me, you find the opening ten minutes of Casualty almost impossible to watch without wanting to intervene to stop the inevitable accidents, or have to put your hands over your eyes at CCTV footage of someone recklessly running across a railway line or edging along the outside of a motorway bridge, you will find Beside The Sea a deeply unsettling and stressful read. It becomes almost immediately apparent that the narrator is at best inadvertently neglectful of her children and at worst, severely unstable, and it's almost impossible to read her story without wanting to protect the children from her; at the same time, it's also impossible not feel deeply sorry for her.

Endless anxiety and cruelly severe depression torture her daily and, by association, her sons. Aged nine and five, they're left standing outside the school gates until 6pm, dressed in ill-fitting clothes and frequently unfed; their mother's self-confessed inability to stick to any kind of routine means they fend for themselves while she sleeps for whole days at a time. Stan, the elder boy, frequently finds himself cast in the role of carer for his mother and his little brother as the family struggle desperately to cope. And yet, despite her erratic parenting, despite her infuriating, disturbing state of denial about certain aspects of her neglect, it's obvious the narrator loves her children, wants something better for them, wants to provide for them - and understands them, too. In fact, her love for the children is the one constant in her life, and strangely, it's this that makes the book all the more disturbing as the story comes to an end.

We're told very little about the narrator's past, except that the children have different fathers and the younger boy's doesn't know his son exists, yet tiny hints (a reference to her missing front teeth; a passing comment that implies she has lived with someone who constantly belittled her) suggest that she may have been a victim of domestic abuse. Is this what has tipped a vulnerable woman over the edge? What was she like before she had her children? Those questions are simply never answered, and I think that perhaps the book is all the better for that: while the narrator's problems are clearly a long way beyond those of most mothers, every parent has moments like hers. Every parent doubts their ability to care for their child; every parent feels guilty, inadequate, over-defensive in the face of other's judgements. What makes this narrative so powerful is knowing this, knowing that even the best of parents can find themselves at the precipice of becoming unable to cope, and wondering how easy it might be to slide over the edge.

This short read is expertly translated by Adriana Hunter, retaining a vivid narrative voice for the protagonist, as fractured and dislocated as her state of mind. In fact I absolutely felt like I was reading the words of a real person rather than a fictional character, and in many ways, this was one of the things that made Beside The Sea a tough read. I have no children, and I'm not sure I could have got through this book if I did. In short, brilliant but devastating.(less)

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Aug 31, 2012 E DB rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to E by: PANK review

The European obsession with the Unnatural Mother has a lengthy history, from the oral folktale to the contemporary tabloid. Olmi's sharp novella is narrated by a woman whose financial and psychological deterioration lead her to the conclusion that she must murder both her beloved young sons.

This is a triumph of voice: we are immediately swept up and washed out to the muddy, bleak seaside along with this woman and her two boys. The narrator is in a constant state of oscillation: in the past, in t...more

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May 19, 2013 Joanne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a beautifully written short novel, which I picked up as it is part of the Summer Reads from the Writer's Centre Norwich. A French bestseller, this is the first time that the novel has been translated into English. It is also a disturbing and very sad little book.

It is written entirely in the first person, from the perspective of a single mother who suffers from depression and is obviously struggling to cope with looking after her two young sons. From the opening sentence of the novel, w...more

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Oct 30, 2012 Masters Review rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review was posted on our blog as well. You can read this review and others at: mastersreview.com/blog.

Beside the Sea by Veronique Olmi is a haunting and fragmented tale that leaves readers immersed in a web of broken logic and misguided love. It’s one of those special books that clings to your bones.

It begins with a mother and her two sons on a trip to the sea. “I wanted us to set off totally believing in it,” she says, setting the stage for a story that is doomed from the start. The mother...more

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May 29, 2012 dely rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 0-francia, favorites

In sole 90 pagine Véronique Olmi riesce a farci penetrare nell'angoscia e nella disperazione di una madre mentalmente disturbata.
Ritmo serrato, l'alternarsi di frasi lunghe con la punteggiatura ridotta al minimo e di frasi molto brevi ci lasciano senza fiato, ci sentiamo soffocare; percepiamo l'ansia e l'angoscia di questa madre.
Una madre sola decide di portare i suoi due figli, nove e cinque anni, al mare e partono di sera; è inverno, per tutto il racconto piove, fango sulle strade, mare in bu...more

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Jul 24, 2010 Meaghan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult-novels, read-in-2010

When I started this book, I thought I knew how it would end. Just this feeling I had -- that and the back-of-the-book blurb which really went a bit too far I think. I was right about the ending.

This was beautifully written, with excellent use of setting and description. I felt like I was there, like I was inside that poor troubled woman's head. I felt deeply her love and fear for her children, and I think the author did a good job explaining what drives a person to do something like this protago...more

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Nov 24, 2012 Kirsty rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: purchased-2012, read-2012, best-of-2012, treasures

Wow. This book is better than I thought it would be, and I had rather high hopes before I began it. It started off in a deceptively simple manner, but the darkness soon crept in and soon engulfed the entire story. I loved the characters and felt that they were drawn perfectly. The nameless narrator really added to the story. I knew much of her inside out by the end of the story, but I was still detached from her however slightly because I did not know her name. This novella is incredibly unsettl...more

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Sep 13, 2012 Marina Sofia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Completely shattered after reading this - and yet I could not set it aside. Yes, a difficult read, especially if you are a mother of two boys yourself, but it exerted a powerful fascination. A language at once simple, unadorned, conversational and yet poetic. The back story is merely hinted at, never overtly stated. You are never in any doubt about the outcome (plus it has been so publicised that I think everyone knows about it without even reading the book).
But it is remarkable for showing how...more

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Apr 29, 2012 Alyson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A profoundly powerful and dramatic novella. Ominous from the start, you sort of know what is going to happen, but it's expertly handled so that you still are shocked at the end. In case you manage to read the blurb on the front inside and the back without knowing what's going to happen, I won't say here. The description of the grim brown hotel and the wet town were vivid and real. The writing, as a women's thoughts, is really well done, and unusual. I've been reading up on it and it took almost...more

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Oct 17, 2010 Dan Holloway rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone who wants to be challenged or looking for something new

Recommended to Dan by: farm lane books

A breathtaking, heartbreaking story that tells of a mother who takes her children to the sea. Only something is wrong, as she struggles to make their holiday as perfect as her limited means will allow. As her love mingles with fear, and a desperate desire to protect her children, we know things will not end well.

This is one of those rare things, a brilliant piece of literature that transcends literature and forces the reader to ask questions of themselves and of society - in this case, just whe...more

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May 19, 2013 Sam rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I read this book in October 2012, here's a copy of my review from then:

This book is narrated by a single mother, her two boys are Stan who's 9 and 5 year old Kevin. She takes them to the seaside as they've never seen the sea before but they go during the week when they should be at school, arriving late at night when it's dark to stay in a hotel. She takes all her money on the trip (loose change in a tin) and none of the visits to the beach, cafe or funfair go well, as you read the book and it b...more

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Mar 23, 2013 Jenn Ravey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

From thepickygirl.com:

Beside the Sea, a novella by Véronique Olmi, translated into English by Adriana Hunter, is what Lionel Shriver (author of We Need To Talk About Kevin) describes as “[a] sustained exercise in dread for the reader” because from the opening lines of the novella, it is apparent that all is not well with our unnamed narrator who is taking her two sons on a trip, staying in a rundown hotel, parceling out her coins for hot chocolate and a trip to the carnival, knowing all along it...more

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Jun 22, 2010 Teresa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It’s been so long since I’ve read anything modern in French Literature but having seen Jackie from Farmlane Books’ wonderful review of the English translation of this from Peirene Press, I decided to give it a go. Admittedly, one can lose a lot in translation, in my case not due to bad translation but rustiness in the language, but this prose is so simple yet so powerful and stark it did not matter that it wasn’t in my mother tongue.

Midweek, during term time, a single mother decides to take her...more

It’s been so long since I’ve read anything modern in French Literature but having seen Jackie from Farmlane Books’ wonderful review of the English translation of this from Peirene Press, I decided to give it a go. Admittedly, one can lose a lot in translation, in my case not due to bad translation but rustiness in the language, but this prose is so simple yet so powerful and stark it did not matter that it wasn’t in my mother tongue.

Midweek, during term time, a single mother decides to take her two young boys, Kevin and Stanley, on a trip to the seaside. Surely, this, their first vacation, should be a time of excitement, of joy….but something isn’t right – they leave in the middle of the night, anxious that noone should see their departure, the weather is dismal as is their hotel room with one bed hardly large enough to hold them all, it’s hard to distinguish night from day in this dreary seaside town whose inhabitants aren’t particularly welcoming to their visitors. Even the sea is in foul, threatening form in this muddy resort much to the children’s dismay. Their budget is limited to the contents of a tea caddy, saved up loose change which seems to irritate the already hostile locals. An excursion like this isn’t going to make the Show and Tell session at Primary school on Monday, oh no, it is evident that disaster is imminent and it is a certain sign of the author’s skill that such foreknowledge doesn’t reduce the poignancy and sheer emotional power of this desperate tale.

This is a short but potent read (121 pages) - it’s dramatic but restrained, one which will stay with me for a very long time. We can only guess what dreadful circumstances have influenced the actions of this unnamed mother, perhaps depression, perhaps an abusive relationship but she is in desperate need of help while being desperately in love with her sons. A must read…

PS. I think it's absolutely clear where events will lead but this could upset those of a nervous disposition...
(less)

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Jan 13, 2013 Leah Moyse rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: tbr

I read this book as the first one of my Translation Challenge books of 2013.

I found this book to be an absolutely astonishing piece of writing.

Absolutely shocking, short and compact but gripping right until the end. The first person narrative worked really well. I haven't read anything as bleak and sparse since 'The Road' although the content matter is completely different.

I will be thinking about this story for days and months to come.

Such an accomplished first novel.

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Mar 01, 2012 Renato M. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

http://www.einaudi.it/libri/libro/v-r...
Sul sito di Einaudi c'è il mio commento a IN RIVA AL MARE di Vèronique Olmi, un piccolo libro su una tragedia che arriva dritto allo stomaco e non si dimentica più. Che coraggio questa Autrice. Bravissima, leggete di lei tutto ciò che è stato e verrà tradotto in italiano. A buon intenditor poche parole.
Renato Bruno
www.matitarossa.com

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Apr 12, 2012 dave grimmett rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Terrifying, haunting portrayal of a mother who is unable to cope with or understand society and decides to take her kids away from it.
The first person perspective presented is gripping, and builds towards quite a climax.

I loved the moments of profound insights into the world that are given, amongst her slightly worrying manic depressive musings..

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Sep 22, 2012 Iain Nisbet rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a dark novella covering a mothers trip to an anonymous seaside team. Veronique Olmi does an fantasticjob in setting the tone through the weather, surroundings and so on. It's technically excellent but despite all of this it's just so bleak that if you are not in the right frame of mind I would not read it at that time.

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Nov 01, 2012 Jen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There is a pervading sense of gloom throughout this book; Olmi is excellent at creating atmosphere. The characters were well-developed generally, although I think it may have benefitted from a greater exploration of the protagonist's background, and how she came to be in such a desperate situation. Without that background, I felt that although the ending was foreseeable, I still wasn't at all sure why it happened like that. [return][return]This book is not a likable one, but it is a profoundly m...more

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Mar 31, 2013 Barb Luther rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Very difficult book to read. Important to see inside the head of a mentally disturbed parent. I felt so frightened for the children long before the bitter end. I kept wondering how they could cope with such instability. And we're they better off in the end?????

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Jan 14, 2013 Sara rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

this book is so frightening and hideous and i actually wanted to throw it out the window or burn it when i finished it. seriously. i think this is because it is very well written and the reader identifies with the mother to this reader's horror.

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Dec 08, 2010 Kirsty Darbyshire rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: paperback

I think I probably knew this was the wrong book to take on a seaside holiday to France before I started, even though it, kind of, features a French seaside holiday. Ours was a much happier holiday I'm pleased to say. This was sad.

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May 12, 2013 Sigrun Hodne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The most beautiful book on hopelessness and despair I've ever read. A devastating story told in a simple but exquisite language. Beware of your own mood when reading it, this book might drag you under -

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Oct 14, 2012 Robin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, ipad-book

This was a very quick, dark read. Though I didn't read it at one setting, I had to finish it quickly because of the prose. Very surprising ending. Glad I downloaded it, but it was a sadread.

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Feb 27, 2011 daysgoby rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

HAUNTING! And sad....this story about a depressed mother that kills her small boys instead was a terrible and sparely-beautiful thing to read. I'll remember this one for a long time.

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