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Le Baiser de l’ange
Clara Nahmias

A woman opens her eyes in a room she doesn’t recognize. She’s told that she’s come out of it. Out of what? Childhood memories flood in. Soon after, she learns that she’s just come out of a two-week-long coma.
Thus begins this autobiographical narrative, which looks at the world with a surprised and critical gaze. Past and present are woven around a central event – the coma – that the narrator compares to the kiss of an angel. Sun-drenched memories, and the dark reality of handicap. Because we soon grasp that the author has been left paralyzed, deprived of the use of her legs, in a wheelchair.
This is the voice of a woman: Jewish, a mother, an academic, a divorcée and suddenly a handicapped person who has to find a way to cope. How does one go on living when one has suddenly been shunted off to the other side of existence? This book tells the story of the long year of care in the world of hospitals. The author evokes the seconds, minutes and hours of waiting; querying and analyzing what makes or unmakes a life. She addresses issues of friendship, love and betrayal. Of how it feels to be the object of other people’s gaze.
We go back in time, from a psychiatrist’s words to a warm June night on a beach in Sidi-Bou-Said. Interrogations, memories, hopes, fears and suffering crowd into the mind of this woman trying to relinquish her status as a victim to once again become a player in her own life.

This book, written over a span of three months, is filled with a sense of urgency. Clara Nahmias’ writing is alert, incisive and dynamic. Not a trace of pathos. Readers will enjoy her unwavering sense of humor. The Kiss of the Angel is a narrative that inspires our admiration and teaches each of us a magnificent lesson about life.
The moving tale of a woman who, after 2 weeks in a coma wakes up handicapped and amnesiac. The story, told with strength and humor, of the struggle to leave the status of victim and to continue – despite everything and everyone – to be a player in her own life. A true life lesson.

Le Baiser de l’ange -
  • Available material :
    Finished copy

  • Buchet/Chastel
  • Essais-Documents
  • Publication date : 04/10/2007
  • Size : 12,5 x 19 cm, 192 p., 13,20 EUR €
  • ISBN 978-2-283-02277-1
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