From international bestselling author Marc Levy, the most widely read writer in France today, comes an unusual and charming love story that reunites a father and daughter, and past and present, in the most unexpected ways.Days before her wedding, Julia Walsh is blindsided twice: once by the sudden death of her estranged father…and again when he appears on her doorstep after his funeral, ready to … funeral, ready to make amends, right his past mistakes, and prevent her from making new ones.
Surprised, to say the least, Julia reluctantly agrees to turn what should have been her honeymoon into a spontaneous road trip with her father to make up for lost time. But when an astonishing secret is revealed about a past relationship, their trip becomes a whirlwind journey of rediscovery that takes them from Montreal to Paris to Berlin and back home again, where Julia learns that even the smallest gestures she might have taken for granted have the power to change her life forever.
Revised edition: Previously published as Toutes ces choses qu’on ne s’est pas dites, this edition of All Those Things We Never Said (US Edition) includes editorial revisions.
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Couldn’t finish it.
Interesting story that keeps you involved to the end, which isn’t really a surprise, but is satisfying.
Kept me interested until the end. The characters are well defined and relatable.
I love this story, it makes me hopeful and breaks my heart.
I wanted to see if the story could have ended another way, but no. Not without ruining the beautiful thing that happened. What’s the most sad is that she’s right, and yet he did what he could to help her find happiness.
Outside the Box! I loved PS From Paris by this author, so I had high hopes for All Those Things We Never Said. I probably should have read between the lines of the synopsis when it described the protagonist’s father appearing on her doorstep days after his funeral. Finished the book but couldn’t get past the absurd.
SPOILER ALERTS AHEAD:
This was a strange read, a book I almost put down several chapters in, something I rarely do. But once the story got out of the Lifetime Movie cadence of the early chapters, getting us into the protagonist’s, Julia’s, earlier life, the historical aspect of a young person being present at the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the love story connected to that era, were engrossing. However…
The entire narrative is built on a science-fiction device that asks the reader to be as immediately embracing of an absurd notion as Julia is: her dead father comes back to her—in what we’re asked to believe is completely believable AI/robot form… which is NOT believable—to say all the things he never said (hence, the title). Once you hitch a ride on that plot device, you’re on the trip with Julia and Dad, retracing steps and replaying the roles of petulant daughter moping and tantrumming at every turn, and overreaching father filling in blanks and hoping for forgiveness. Were this a trip with two living human beings—which a reader can get easily lured into feeling—it might work more successfully. Asking us to go on this physical and emotional journey with a fraught, foot-stamping woman and a paternal robot who NO ONE seems to suspect is a robot, is truly absurd.
But as you go along, the cat-and-mouse story of Julia tracking down her long-ago, long-lost, one-true love with the help of her “magical” father holds your attention. Those chapters (one you put aside the AI foolishness) are at least historically and emotionally engaging. Less so are the characters back home: Adam, the rejected fiancé who offers his last tirade in almost-cartoonish dialogue from a bad romance novel, and Stanley, the requisite gay friend who embodies pretty much every cliche that goes along with that assignation… but at least he was likable, Stanley.
There’s a twist at the end that leaves the reader to decide if the science fiction trope is simply continuing beyond the original framework positing by Julia’s father, or if the entire device was a scheme… a “Bobby in the shower waking from a dream” concept. To be honest, I didn’t really care at that point, but was annoyed that I was being asked to.
Bottom line: if you enjoy Marc Levy and have familiarity with his work (I did not), if you can put aside desire for reality-based characters or plot twists that actually make sense or are remotely believable, you may find the emotional aspects of this book moving… some of them are, particularly the dialogue related to parenting and the love of parents for their children. But ultimately I found the science fiction device to be too much of an “ask” in this genre of book and, frankly, narratively manipulative. If you approach it as science fiction (at least until the final twist), it may be a more satisfying read.
All of his books are fun. Beach read.
It was interesting and a little surprising
The premise of this book was rather silly. I think it was strange that the dad waited until he was “dead” to finally reach out to his daughter. I felt a bit sorry for her fiancé as he was a decent guy who got the short end of the stick.
Loved this book! Made me think twice about many relationships over the years. Even though it is somewhat farfetched, it absolutely drew me in! A very interesting read!
Hands down my favorite author
This is a wonderful, simple, and yet profound book! After finished Irène by Pierre Lemaitre, I was looking for a book that will relax my mind (that’s another great book, but deeply disturbing), and I decided to gave this book a chance, it was the perfect choice. Coincidentally by another French writer.
This is a book about second chances.
Excellent read!! It took some unexpected twists. Would like to be able to read it again for the first time.