“Boston, un hiver si court” by Alain Briottet.

 

The keen eye and pen of French author Alain Briottet deftly sketches the luminous beauty of Boston’s soul in winter. I became viscerally engaged and surprised by his character’s discovery of the cityscape, its neighborhoods and the interior spaces where Bostonians retreat from the cold, seeking companionship and shelter. This book marvelously reveals the elusive and timeless qualities of our town that lead me to seek out the unexpected during all its seasons.

Barbara de Bragança,

Former President of the Alliance Française de Boston-Cambridge

Trustee of the French Cultural Center, Boston, MA

 

 

The keen observer in Boston, My Blissful Winter, not only introduces us to specific Boston locations and neighborhoods but also to a variety of denizens, iconic individuals, young and elderly, ranging  from Brahmins to French Canadians. Challenging weather, and musical motifs enhance the unforgettable portraits, creating an atmosphere at once nostalgic and palpable. The prose reads like poetry and the vivid descriptions remain as relevant today as when they were written.

                                             Lia Poorvu

                                             Retired Lecturer, Tufts University

                                             Chevalier, Officier des Palmes Académiques

 

 

A perfect jewel box of novellas, Alain Briottet, created his characters with the eye of a portrait painter.  His stories unfold like short films expressing a humanity and universality that will appeal to all those who cherish memories of a city they love.

                                             Betsey Buddy

Retired French teacher, Greenwich, CT.  

 

 

The charming recollections of a Frenchman’s first encounters with Boston society. The young banking intern recounts his impressions of familiar places, from the Ritz to the Blue Diner, with original perceptions and affectionate humor. Deftly rendered into English from the original French, this is a book to savor and return to again and again to re-visit a favorite story.

Mary Louise Burke, President

Boston/Strasbourg Sister City Association

 

During his posting to the French Consulate in Boston, Ambassador Alain Briottet came to observe and befriend neighbors of Beacon Hill with whom he came to feel a common bond.   Now, in twelve luminous novellas, he shares observations and insights of encounters,  that are often brief, may mark you permanently.  The author/Briottet’s compassion and gift for rich friendships provide moving portrayals that belie the stereotype of frigid, puritanical Brahmins.  Paulette Boudrot’s admirable translation of his lyrical prose reveals that though winter in Boston may be cold, the lives of the inhabitants are decidedly not.

Margaret Collins Weitz,  Author

 “Sisters in the Resistance: How Women Fought to Free France 1940-1945

 

​Boston is here, revealed in its many hues. Each story presents a different situation affording the chance to experience the tiniest wonder — changes in the atmosphere, footsteps in the snow, the slant of a winter sun — all captured in the author’s crystal-clear, thoughtful and detailed writing.  He makes us see and feel what he has seen and felt, offering us the fabric of a life that we discover to be our own.   

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                                                           Alain Malraux, Playwright, Paris

 

In sensitive, lyrical prose, these short stories highlight the ephemeral nature of time, as experienced by a young intern who spends a winter working at a large bank in Boston. The parallels between his experience and that of the author, a career diplomat stationed in Boston during the 1980s, are unmistakable. It is the contrast between the harmony of nature and the disruption of the real world that is the strength of this collection; these stories make you think about life.

Phillipe Martial

Honorary Director, Library & Archives

French Senate, Paris

 

Reading Boston, un hiver si court I hear a resuscitated Talleyrand telling me that “Those who did not live before September 11 don’t know the sweetness of living.”  My dear Boston in the eighties is masterfully summoned by Alain Briottet, not so much through an evocation of sweetness than by the melancholy and understated sharpness of its vignettes which create a stirring poetry.

André Citroën, Paris