A lazy French summer day splits wide open when two boys die in an accident as their mom, Louise, and her brother, Benoît, watch in horror. But instead of providing each other solace, the adults remain isolated in their grief. Louise can barely speak; her husband, Vincent, begins an affair; Benoît feels his whole life unraveling; and Louise and Benoît's mother — who never forgave Louise for marrying at 17 — encourages both men to escape the dreary house. Pascale Kramer's riveting page-turner, The Living, (translated by Tamsin Black) reveals the ways that lives can change in a matter of seconds. A-

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