Book Review: Red is My Heart by by Antoine Laurain, Jane Aitken (Translation), Le Sonneur (Illustrations)

I cannot stress enough how much I love Antoine Laurain’s storytelling… The style, the substance, the concepts – everything about his books resonates with me. This latest, in which he teams up with the incomparable artist Le Sonneur, is another brilliant example of how he manages to encapsulate human emotion in a way no one else can.

The book is a tale told in anecdotes, by a man who has recently been left by his love. It takes the reader through his pain and loss in an almost every-day fashion, with stories that focus on the daily experience of loss and how senseless and tragic it feels when you are wrapped in it – like the world’s worst hairshirt blanket. It’s an incredibly moving series of vignettes and they are punctuated and brought to further life by the brilliant black/white/red line illustrations featured throughout the book.

The pairing of the two is a marvelous way to present the isolation and desolation the protagonist faces as he moves through the world on his own again, confronted at every turn by something no longer within his grasp. The writing is as moving as you’d expect from someone with the lyrical lovely style that Laurain embodies in all his books, and the art is a poignant point-counterpoint to the words. It’s a magnificent way to capture the spirit of loneliness we face when we find ourselves unexpectedly left alone in the world.

Thanks to the publisher and Meryl Zegarek Public Relations for my obligation-free review copy. The book releases in the U.S. on January 18, 2022.