Listen A Novel

In 1989, at twenty, Marie walks away from a prestigious art program in the Netherlands to become an au pair in Paris. The strange language, the crowded streets and children's chatter, the polished manners of the French family who hires her all promise the hard reset she craves after what her photography teacher did to her. For a while she can almost believe distance works. Then, years later, during the 2015 attacks in Paris, Marie sees a familiar face among the images from the exact arrondissement where that family lives. The past she tried to outrun is suddenly close again, asking to be named. She can keep looking away, or she can finally turn and listen.