大象传媒

Yves is a disappointed young man, scarred by the First World War.

He returns to the Spanish resort where he spent blissful childhood holidays, and becomes infatuated by the beautiful, bored Denise, whose rich husband is away on business and Denise falls passionately in love with him.

But their relationship is snagged by both personal and social thorns and back in Paris their love is challenged by a mutual misunderstanding. The story alternates from the perspective of the lovers.

Published in 1926, The Misunderstanding has been described as Irene Nemirovsky's Madame Bovary. In this early novel she examines the effects of an extra-marital affair. The story alternates from the perspective of the lovers so from the man to the woman.

It displays a kind of hidden regret that human beings are so imperfect. Real excoriating passionate emotion, expressed with truthful intensity and cool wit. Fire banked down with ice. It's a brilliant synthesis that illuminates the gaping fissures in the French class system wrought by the war and industrialisation.

Yves ...... Joseph Kloska
Denise ...... Sarah Smart
Francette ...... Charlotte Sienna Lee
Jessaint ...... Jake Ferretti
Waiter ...... Evan Jones

Translated by Sandra Smith.

Dramatised in five parts by Lin Coghlan

Director: Pauline Harris

First broadcast on 大象传媒 Radio 4 in January 2019.