Couple Mechanics

Nelly Alard discusses her novel Couple Mechanics, just published in the United States with Other Press. Couple Mechanics won her the prestigious French Interallié Award in 2009.

At once sexy and feminist, Couple Mechanics is a story of a woman who decides to fight for her marriage after her husband confesses to an affair with a notable politician. Juliette, a computer engineer, and Olivier, a journalist, have two young children and the busy lives of a modern Parisian couple. When Olivier confesses to having an affair, Juliette’s world is shattered. How do you survive betrayal? Can a broken couple ever be united again? What lengths would you go to in order to save your marriage? These are the questions that this novel, with great intelligence, honesty, and humor, tries to answer. In its acute depiction of intimacy, Couple Mechanics exposes the system of forces at work in a marriage, the effects of the inevitable ebb and flow of desire, and the difficulty of being a man today.

In English. Free and open to the public. No RSVP necessary.

Couple Mechanics, a novel by Nelly Alard, translated from the French by Adriana Hunter, Other Press, 2016.