Bellevue

Blanka, a nineteen-year-old from Slovakia, arrives for a summer of volunteer work at Bellevue, an institution for people with disabilities on a hill above Marseille, wanting to help where it seems to matter most. The drowsy French summer promises routine and perhaps romance, and she explores the city and watches the relationships around her, but after a period of settling in the first conflicts arise. The helplessness of the residents first unsettles her, then irritates and finally frightens her. Her attempts to get close to the patients fail, and she seeks a way out of her loneliness among the other volunteers, but as depression distorts what she sees, she loses the ability to face human suffering and, in the end, ordinary reality. Everything is told from inside her head.

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About the book

Form

Novel

Length

189 pages in the original

Set in

France

First published

2010 by Marenčin PT

Author's age

28 when first published

ISBN

9788081140303 (original)

9780993446771 (Jantar Publishing, United Kingdom)