Winner of the prestigious Prix Goncourt du premier roman for 2004.

Nina had always dreamt of getting married, of sharing everything with the man she loved. What she didn’t bargain for was sharing a sad, boring, daily grind working at a Paris kiosk with her indifferent husband. One day, she crosses paths with a man who initiates her into the intoxicating pleasures of sex, which she had remained entirely ignorant of save for her husband’s dutiful 3-minute ministrations. But all of this sexual excitement is meaningless to Nina. She remains strangely devoted to her husband, who begins to elude her more and more. Faced with his increasingly frequent absences, she decides one day to follow him. What she discovers is that all of his free time is spent at the movies. Flipping through the men’s magazines behind her kiosk, she suddenly has the idea of assuming a different identity. Disguising herself as a femme fatale, complete with black wig, leather trench coat and stiletto heels, she transforms herself into a mysterious Chinese woman, seats herself in the row behind him at the theater and makes passes at him. He takes the bait and falls madly in love with this supposed stranger. But Nina soon grows jealous of this other woman, who manages to entice her husband in ways that she cannot. As her feelings of rejection and deception grow, she realizes that she has but one choice: she must reveal her secret to him. The book’s ending packs a startling surprise.