Tag: French author

The Heart of Everything by Marc Levy (Literary Fiction)

I loved this book — it was funny, sweet, and poignant. Always enjoyable with plenty of insight on the “big questions” and peppered with little surprises that evoke the individuality of each character, rather than serving as plot devices. I both laughed out loud and teared up frequently.

Thomas — a concert pianist in Paris — is surprised when his father (now dead for five years) appears in his apartment to beg him for one last favor — to reunite him with his long lost love in San Francisco. Not your typical ghost story, the long journey provides the vehicle for a chance for a father and son to have the kind of reconciliation one always hopes for after a death. I could not have predicted the level of insight, sweetness, and hidden delight from the plot description alone. The bantering style between the two often made me laugh out loud, but also clearly had that bittersweet feeling of two people who love each other but have never really been able to express that love directly. Teasing, at times acerbic, direct and simultaneously avoidant. What would you say to your deceased parent if you suddenly had just a few extra days with him or her? I liked being given the opportunity to think about just that. As an extra, I very much enjoyed Thomas’ musical references and his experiences as a performer. They had real depth and were not simply window dressing on a character.

I loved the writing style. Understated, lovely, and clean. The words don’t draw attention to themselves, but each one appears precisely chosen to impart exactly the meaning the author intended. I am embarrassed to admit that I had not previously heard of Marc Levy, who is apparently a bestselling French author and wrote the novel on which the movie “Just Like Heaven” was based. According to the Amazon page, “Le Figaro newspaper recently commissioned a nationwide poll asking the French to rank their favorite author: Marc Levy and Victor Hugo were #1.” I’ll certainly be investigating his backlist!

Thank you to Amazon Crossing and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book was published on January 1st, 2026.