Bibliofemme Bookclub An Irish Bookclub

Zade is a novel set predominately in Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, and its cast of characters are mostly familiar, and mostly dead. The narrator is a young woman suddenly catapulted from the joys of young love to the verge of suicide. When her world begins to fall apart, she takes refuge in her favourite Parisian haunt, where she puts a gun in her mouth. And here the story begins.

The first part is a stream of consciousness that reads like a spontaneous description of a multimedia theatre performance. Author Heather Reyes wears her love of literature and culture on her sleeve, not only incorporating her idols (Oscar Wilde, Marcel Proust, Gertrude Stein, Jim Morrison) into the story as characters, but also namedropping (Samuel Beckett, Alberto Giaocometti) throughout her main character’s internal monologues. That said, it’s a clever construct and she manages to carry it off.

The book’s big plusses are its atmospheric prose, imagination and a palpable passion on the part of Reyes for what she is writing – something which is rare enough in new fiction to make it particularly noticeable here.

Reyes worked as a teacher and published short fiction in magazines and elsewhere for over 20 years before making her debut as a novelist with Zade in 2004. It is particularly heart-warming to see a novel like this getting published. With its experimental prose style and heavy reliance on cultural references, it is unlikely to reach bestseller status, but Reyes might be a slow-grower. She’s got major potential and if she builds on this, Zade could come to be regarded as an early triumph.