When I heard that Nell Stevens was taking on the story of another literary great - following on from her part-memoir, part-imagined life 'Mrs Gaskell and Me' - I had to pick it up.
Written from the perspective of a 14-year-old ghost called Blanca, 'Briefly, A Delicious Life' looks at a moment in the (delicious) life of renowned French writer George Sand and her love affair with Chopin. Set in Valldemossa on the island of Mallorca, Sand and Chopin up sticks from Paris for the better weather, in the hopes of helping Chopin overcome a sickness. Blanca falls in love with George at first sight and so begins an obsessive haunting.
Unfortunately, Blanca is the only one who welcomes the existence of the newcomers. The islanders' repugnance of these strangers, particularly the woman who dresses as a man and brings her children to live in sin with a friend-who-is-most-certainly-not-her-husband, starts as small-town bullying, and grows ever more sinister after an excellent squid heist (yes, you read that correctly).
Stevens also allows us to time travel through Blanca's memories of her own life and subsequent afterlife on the island. These passages make you fall in love with her and impotently rage at the injustices done to her.
The only sections that didn't quite hit the mark for me were the descriptions of Chopin's playing and his obsession with his piano; however, I imagine they would be a highlight for any classical music enthusiast.
Written with a lyricism I have come to expect from Stevens, this is an excellent debut novel exploring power in relationships and living life for yourself.
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