ABOUT THE BOOK
Inspiration for the major motion picture Mama Weed;
translated from the international bestseller La Daronne, winner of the European
Crime Fiction Prize and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, France’s most
prestigious prize for crime fiction.
Meet Patience Portefeux, a fifty-three-year-old, underpaid
Franco-Arab interpreter for the Ministry of Justice who specializes in phone
tapping. Widowed after the sudden death of her husband, Patience is now wedged
between university fees for her grown-up daughters and nursing home costs for
her aging mother.Happening upon an especially revealing set of police wiretaps
ahead of all other authorities, Patience makes a life-altering decision that
sees her intervening in — and infiltrating — the machinations of a massive drug
deal. She thus embarks on an entirely new career path: Patience becomes The
Godmother.
This is not the French idyll of postcards and stock photos.
With a gallery of traffickers, dealers, police officers, and politicians, The
Godmother casts its sharp and amusing gaze on everyday survival in contemporary
France. With an unforgettable woman at its center, Hannelore Cayre’s
bestselling novel reveals a European criminal underground that has rarely been
seen.
MY THOUGHTS
What a clever piece of writing! THE GODMOTHER by Hannelore
Cayre is the fantastic tale of Patience Portfeux, a 50-ish year-old French-Arabic
translator who flies under the radar, not only at work as the often invisible
translator, but as a woman in general society. People take her at face value,
if they consider her at all.
Working for decades with precious little to show for her
efforts, Patience has reached her limits when she decides to take advantage of
a misplaced large drug haul that’s fallen through the hands of the police and
the drug dealers . . . having been
helped along by Patience herself. After all, her knowledge of all manner of
criminal dealings as a translator, and her life as a child of a parent that engaged
in criminal activities, give Patience a unique perspective that she’s in a
position to manipulate. And she does so splendidly!
I found the writing to be engaging, insightful and peppered
with black humour. Patience is cunning and sly, and you can’t help wanting her
to succeed in her criminal endeavours. The transitions in narrative between the
past and present flowed naturally, making this a wonderfully entertaining read.
Highly
recommended!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hannelore Cayre is an award-winning French novelist,
screenwriter, and director, and a practicing criminal lawyer. Her works include
Legal Aid , Masterpieces , and Like It Is in the Movies . She has directed
several short films and the adaptation of Commis d'office ( Legal Aid ) is her
first feature-length film.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Stephanie is a translator into English of all things
literary and French.
Her other languages, include German, Italian and Swedish.
Having worked as a lawyer in Sydney and London, Stephanie
happily traded in a legal career for a return to her linguistic calling. After
several years as a legal translator, she left the world of pleadings and
contractual documents behind.
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