“Happy are the loved ones and the lovers and those who can do without love. Happy are the happy.” –  Jorge Luis Borges

In Happy are the Happy, Yasmina Reza paints with grace, delightful wit, and remarkable sharpness the small tragedies of familial life. In a supermarket, one couple fights over a piece of cheese. Another couple becomes increasingly worried about their son who is obsessed Céline Dion and starts dressing and singing like her. Over the course of a bridge game, a man – overwhelmed with anger at his partner – swallows a bridge card.

In these narratives, wars rage and relationship power dynamics spin out of control. Through masterly crafted monologues, Yasmina Reza brilliantly portrays the dismay of characters coping with the cruelty of life.

Happy are the Happy, a novel, Other Press, translated by John Cullen, 2015

Miriam Bridenne

After almost two decades of working in publishing, and a few round trips between Paris and New York, Miriam has decided to settle down at Albertine to do what she enjoys most: recommending books she loves. Somehow this also includes taking bizarre pictures for Albertine's social media outlets.

Other recommendations by Miriam Bridenne