One Hour of Fervor - Muriel Barbery

Such an interesting book...cerebral, beautiful, poetic, precise, odd, and intense. Haru, a wealthy Japanese art dealer, has an affair with a French woman, who bears his child. She tells him if he ever tries to see her she will kill herself. Not the cheeriest set-up for a novel. Barbery, however, weaves an intricate story of friendship, family, Japanese customs, art and love that is fascinating. With an array of wonderfully imagined characters, she leads you on a haunting journey of self-awareness and restraint. I shed a few tears. 

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An aside: This novel was translated from Barbery's native French to English. One Hour of Fervor is a prequel to her prior novel, A Single Rose. This was  not mentioned in the promo material provided by Europa, the publisher. I found that odd. It wasn't greatly received, and I am on the fence whether I will read it. I was interested in Barbery's understanding of Japan, which is deep. You can read more about that here: https://lithub.com/how-i-learned-to-let-form-do-the-work/.