Home
/
Fiction
/
All About Sarah
All About Sarah
Nov 16, 2025 9:58 PM

Author:Pauline Delabroy-Allard,Adriana Hunter

All About Sarah

An intoxicating and evocative novel about the all-consuming love affair between two women in Paris and the ruin it leaves in its wake.

'Captivating...intense...seductive' Guardian

A thirty-something teacher drifts through her life in Paris, raising a daughter on her own, lonely in spite of a new boyfriend. Then one night, at a friend's tepid New Year's Eve party, Sarah enters the scene like a tornado. A talented young violinist, she is loud, vivacious, appealingly unkempt in a world where everyone seems preoccupied with being 'just so'. It is the beginning of an intense relationship, tender and violent, that will upend both women's lives.

A literary sensation in France, All About Sarah perfectly captures the pull of a desire so strong that it blinds us to everything else.

'All About Sarah moves impressively from the chaos and noise of love, to silence and solitude, like a spun coin settling' Observer

Reviews

[All About Sarah] moves impressively from the chaos and noise of love, to silence and solitude, like a spun coin settling.

—— John Self , Observer

A story of desire and desolation.

—— Kim Willsher , Guardian

A brief, intense read... compulsive... seductive prose.

—— Lara Feigel , Guardian

There are shades of Duras, Nabokov, and Barthes in the intensely living heart of this magnificent novel.

—— L'Express

Impressively written and structured... Above all, the novel is memorable for its unflinchingly extreme treatment of romantic love

—— Times Literary Supplement

Discover what a fine writer Murakami is with this engrossing examination of a male mid-life crisis... He enthrallingly teases out the risks, culminating in a headily sensual finale

—— Time Out

A beautiful, atmospheric novel sustained by Murakami's flair for philosophical mediation at its most human

—— Irish Times

A wise and beautiful book.

—— The New York Times Book Review

A probing meditation on human fragility, the grip of obsession, and the impenetrable, erotically charged enigma that is the other.

—— The New York Times

Brilliant. . . . A mesmerizing new example of Murakami's deeply original fiction.

—— The Baltimore Sun

Lovely, deceptively simple. . . . A novel of existential romance.

—— San Francisco Chronicle

His most deeply moving novel.

—— The Boston Globe

Mesmerizing. . . . This is a harrowing, a disturbing, a hauntingly brilliant tale.

—— The Baltimore Sun

A fine, almost delicate book about what is unfathomable about us.

—— The Philadelphia Inquirer

Portrayed in a fluid language that veers from the vernacular . . . to the surprisingly poetic.

—— San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle

Murakami has once again produced a perfect gem

—— Good Book Guide

Murakami weaved his mesmeric story-telling power once again with this new book…but still bearing the unmistakable purity of prose, economy of expression and simplicity of style that characterise his writing

—— Bay

A mysterious story about friendship, heartbreak and confronting the past, this book is surreal, existential and, therefore, classic Murakami

—— Dan Lewis , Travel Guide

The tale is as absorbing as the prose is beautiful

—— Good Book Guide

This is classic Murakami, an isolated character struggling to make his way through a world both deceptively simple and utterly fantastical, his story told through prose infused with all the beauty and meaning of a Kyoto tea ceremony

—— Freya McClements , Irish Times

His versatility and ability to craft a story is spellbinding… Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage is a fine story that held my attention until the end.

—— Yomi Segun Steven , Nudge

Loneliness, sexual ambiguity and emotional repression- the perfect recipe for a novel that put Murakami back on my list of unputdownable authors

—— John Kampfner , Observer

Kafkaesque, unusual and packed with sex and confusion, this is high-end prose… Murakami is remarkably prolific… A weird and very wonderful descent into the madness of contemporary Tokyo.

—— Paul Critcher , Geographical

Nolan's narrator rips and picks at the threads and scabs of desire, hedonism and self-worth... in this searing first novel, Nolan is holding up a fantastically intense mirror to her protagonist and letting us make up our own mind about whether or not we will look away.

—— Tara Joshi , Quietus

There are flashes of brilliance throughout, reminiscent of John Berger.

—— Stephanie Sy-Quia , Times Literary Supplement

Acts of Desperation creates an immersive experience of toxic romance through a suffocating and addictive narrative.

—— New Statesman

Painful, sharp and absorbing.

—— Susie Mesure , i

A reflection on compulsion, addiction and what it's like to exist as a young woman in a world that is hostile to you. Read the first page and you won't be able to stop.

—— Irish Times

Nolan...stakes out thrilling new territory in an intense, unflinching novel that is always intelligent and utterly unafraid of ugliness.

—— Claire Lowdon , Spectator, *Books of the Year*

A devastating stripping back of the gendered and politicised conditions that shape desire, a revelation of the unnerving ways we are made vulnerable to others in unequal systems. Its crisp, knowing prose is unparalleled, its anger remarkable.

—— Anahit Behrooz , Skinny, *Books of the Year*

Nolan's intelligent, elegant first novel, a gripping portrait of love turned toxic.

—— Daily Telegraph

The star feature of Nolan's narration is her ability to cut through received ideas about women, relationships and even rape. Her headlong, fearless prose, feels like salt wind on cracked lips. You wince and you thrill.

—— Claire Lowdon , Sunday Times

A raw read of vulnerability, desperation, and most definitely a new voice in fiction

—— Chloe Brown , Cosmopolitan

A thrilling read...if you want a visceral, honest, unputdownable summer read then this is it. You'll devour it in a day.

—— Stylist, *Summer Reads of 2022*

A very elegant novel, with coercive control at the core. She has such a strong voice and not a sentence is extraneous

—— Emma Frost, author of BUSY BEING FREE , i

I read this in one go... I found it raw, honest, brutal and real.

—— Lykke Li , Observer

Written with acerbic style and wit, this is an intoxicatingly good look at romantic obsession, delusion and desire.

—— i

Beautifully written…and the short chapters keep things moving at an addictively fast pace. Most importantly, it’s shamelessly real

—— Crack
Comments
Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdbook.com All Rights Reserved