Memoir Recommendation: A Gift from Brittany

[mebbee]

In a moving and atmospheric memoir, Marjorie “Midge” Price, an aspiring artist in her late twenties leaves the comfort of her Chicago suburb in 1960 and travels alone to France to paint. Midge arrives in Paris and is dazzled by everything French. Not surprisingly, she falls in love and marries an exciting French painter named Yves. But when they purchase part of a remote hamlet in Brittany, her romantic adventure takes on a deeper meaning. Midge finds herself in a world she never knew existed. Modern comforts are nonexistent and lives and customs have changed little since the Middle Ages.

As her seemingly idyllic marriage unravels, Midge turns to an elderly and illiterate peasant woman who lives in the nearest farmhouse across the road. Jeanne Montrelay is 68. She has three cows to her name, doesn’t know how to read or write, and has never left the village. In spite of staggering differences, they become inseparable and transform each other’s lives.

A GIFT FROM BRITTANY by Marjorie Price celebrates the transcending power of friendship. It transports the reader into a lost world — a world of centuries past — and brings it to life again. The paperback addition of this book is suited for book clubs and includes suggested topics for discussion.