Dorita has made a success of life: she has a husband with a good position, children, furs, jewels, cars, a rich social life. In a crowded shopping street she meets Carmen, an old school friend she has not seen for years. Carmen is the dowdy, studious one. She has qualified as a teacher but is unmarried. She has none of the glamour of Dorita, but her self-esteem is bolstered by her belief that she is indispensable to her sister's family as a baby-sitter. A coffee to have a chat over past times is followed by a Martini, then another and another. Beneath the friendly chat, each woman tries to assert her sense of her own value, and things become more and more fraught until, in a grotesque attempt to prove her sexual superiority, Dorita goes to the toilet for a sexual encounter with a man sitting at the next table. AUTHOR: Of Spanish and Greek origin, Mercedes Deambrosis is a new and individual voice in French fiction. Milagrosa, her first novel,(Dedalus edition 2002) has been described as a revelation, a stylistic tour de force. Marie-Claire said, "Mercedes Deambrosis is an unknown. That is quite normal, this is her first novel. But what assurance! One would swear it was written by an author at the height of her powers."
