Autobiografia de um Amor

At thirty-two, Alexandre Rivière discovers that his wife, Jeanne, feels alone in their marriage, misunderstood, and consumed by resentment. Shaken by having loved her so poorly, Rivière falls in love again with the woman he thought he knew. But it's too late; Jeanne has suffered too much for loving him and no longer believes in his kisses. Alexandre leaves his family, the New Hebrides, his teaching job, and disappears suddenly. Two years later, Octave Rivière—his twin brother—arrives in the archipelago. He is exactly the man Alexandre was not. In him, Jeanne's husband reappears, reformed, corrected of everything that discouraged her. "I never wish to please you, to discourage you from loving me!" he tells her at their first meeting. Skillfully, he courts Jeanne, healing the wounds Alexandre left in her heart and alleviating her guilt and persistent fears, freeing her from the trap of resentment and teaching her the art of fulfilling her own expectations. Far from being content with simply loving her, Octave Rivière will allow her to love herself. But who is this Rivière who has come to liberate her from herself? A manipulator in the service of love, Octave is the most disconcerting creation of the author of Zubial, Zèbre, Petit Sauvage, L'île des Gauchers...