ECHOES
THE STORY SO FAR: Returning to the Provençal village of Gordes for work, travel writer Liv finds herself intoxicated once again with its serene beauty. Almost 40 years earlier, on a long holiday with her twin brothers and warring parents, Olivia (as she then calls herself) sneaks away from the tense atmosphere and stumbles upon a naked woman bathing in a lake. The woman, Camille Laurent, an artist, welcomes Olivia into her family alongside her husband Alain and two daughters, Fifine and Amélie. Olivia regularly watches the sunrise with them, learning from Camille the name of every colour in the ever-changing sky. Olivia is mesmerised. As a grown woman, Liv makes the decision to revisit the places of her past, first the house her parents rented, then the lake. Arriving at the lake, a violent storm breaks out, jeopardising both her own safety and that of an elderly woman floating in the water – a woman who looks surprisingly like Camille.
July 2022
Liv ran to the water’s edge, rods of vertical rain stinging her body. Whoever this woman in the pool was, but especially if she were Camille Laurent, Liv had to save her. How could anyone be foolish enough to swim during a massive thunderstorm beneath a canopy of trees vulnerable to lightning strikes?
But wasn’t that precisely the kind of thing Camille would do? Her desire to be at one with nature had always overridden almost everything else.
‘Camille!’ Liv shouted, her voice
