Nell Stevens

Briefly, a Delicious Life

An unforgettable debut novel from an award-winning writer: a lively, daring ghost story about a dead teen girl who falls in love with a female writer who has no idea she exists. In 1473, fourteen-year-old Blanca dies in childbirth in a hilltop monastery in Mallorca. Nearly four hundred years later, when George Sand, her two children, and her lover Frederic Chopin arrive in the village, Blanca is still there: a spirited, funny, righteous ghost, she’s been hanging around the monastery since her accidental death, spying on the monks and the townspeople and keeping track of her descendants. Blanca is enchanted the moment she sees George, and the magical novel unfolds as a story of deeply felt, unrequited longing—the impossible love of a teenage ghost for a woman who can’t see her and doesn’t know she exists. As George and Chopin, who wear their unconventionality, in George’s case, literally on their sleeves, find themselves in deepening trouble with the provincial, 19th-century villagers, Blanca watches helplessly and reflects on the circumstances of her own death (which involves an ill-advised love affair with a monk-in-training). Charming, original, and emotionally moving, this is a surprisingly touching story about romantic fixation and a powerful meditation on creativity.

Briefly, A Delicious Life

 My brother, my love (this was how my favorite one went, and I read and reread it all the time), I can hear you breathing even when you are not near. This sort of thing delighted me. I thought it was wildly romantic. The first word I learned t was when. When will you come to me? When will I see you? They were always in such a hurry to be near each other.

What a thing it is, to fall in love, to want to know everything there is to know about a person and yet, at the same time, to find the smallest detail – a blade of loose skin peeling from the lower corner of the fingernail – entirely overwhelming, too lovely to bear.

A playful and daring tale about a teenage ghost who falls in love with the writer George Sand.

In 1473, fourteen-year-old Blanca dies in a hilltop monastery in Mallorca. Nearly four hundred years later, when George Sand, her two children, and her lover Frederic Chopin arrive in the village, Blanca is still there: a spirited, funny, righteous ghost, she’s been hanging around the monastery since her accidental death, spying on the monks and the townspeople and keeping track of her descendants.

Blanca is enchanted the moment she sees George, and the magical novel unfolds as a story of deeply felt, unrequited longing—a teenage ghost pining for a woman who can’t see her and doesn’t know she exists. As George and Chopin, who wear their unconventionality, in George’s case, literally on their sleeves, find themselves in deepening trouble with the provincial, 19th-century villagers, Blanca watches helplessly and reflects on the circumstances of her own death (which involved an ill-advised love affair with a monk-in-training).

Charming, original, and emotionally moving -- gorgeous and surprising exploration of artistry, desire, and life after death.

The idea was a great/different one. The perspective of the book is that of a ghost who is bound to the monastery where Chopin and George Sand spent their days while living in Majorca. We jump between the ghost’s past and the present life that Chopin and Sand live. I felt that I never really connected fully with any of the characters..and when the time finally came to learn what really happened to our main character, the ghost named Blanca, it was rushed and left me wondering why would the book end so abruptly on this event. I closed the book and tried to look for the full circle or meaning but it felt difficult. The scenery is beautiful and whimsical which I liked, as well as the idea of telling the story from the ghost pov.

Paige Woodie

Helena

i loved everything about this book. the atmosphere, i loved that it was set on mallorca, i could picture it so well. obviously the musical aspects, chopin and the preludes were cherry on top for me. and also the characters. george was so interesting and blanca’s pov made everything better in the book.

This was off to a promising start and had an excellent concept but it dissolved the further the story progressed. The biggest setback was perhaps that the jumping narrative, while compelling, seemed to stop us from truly immersing ourselves into either Blanca's or George Sand's characters (though my heart still breaks for Blanca but in the same way it would always break for any girl in her circumstances).

“let’s go through this again. let’s see how it feels when taken at the crushing, trudging pace of ordinary life, so incredibly slow, ponderous, deadening, and with so many astonishing moments in between.”

stevens reminded me that there is beauty and wonder in the ordinary!! that we need to take the time to appreciate it during our lifetimes. i think it also taught me how to be a better lover, to love with all of my soul and being. i loved this so much!! i think everyone needs to read it

“let’s go through this again. let’s see how it feels when taken at the crushing, trudging pace of ordinary life, so incredibly slow, ponderous, deadening, and with so many astonishing moments in between.”

stevens reminded me that there is beauty and wonder in the ordinary!! that we need to take the time to appreciate it during our lifetimes. i think it also taught me how to be a better lover, to love with all of my soul and being. i loved this so much!! i think everyone needs to read it

tina

3.5

this was one of those very melancholic and quiet but also strange type of books. i liked it a lot.

This was a fascinating read! Much different than the other "ghost" stories I've read. More contemplative and sensory. The way the ghost can inhabit the people in which she haunts is an experience. This is not a scary read, more atmospheric and I enjoyed how the story slowly reveals how our main gal reaches her demise. 

Last third of the book was okay, however and I found myself eager to find out how it ended. Is that good or bad? Not sure, it just is.  

Gisela Ayala 

This was a fascinating read! Much different than the other "ghost" stories I've read. More contemplative and sensory. The way the ghost can inhabit the people in which she haunts is an experience. This is not a scary read, more atmospheric and I enjoyed how the story slowly reveals how our main gal reaches her demise. 

Last third of the book was okay, however and I found myself eager to find out how it ended. Is that good or bad? Not sure, it just is.  

Carrington Kinslow

Briefly, A Delicious Life, is both a romantic ghost story and an exploration of the human experience. It is both fiction and fact, and as painful as it is beautiful. 

Briefly, A Delicious Life, is a story about love, yearning, lust, femininity, revenge, pain, and anger. It is horrific at times, and then so tender and inspiring. 

Nell Stevens’ prose was heart-wrenchingly gorgeous and often took my breath away. Stevens describes adolescence and womanhood in ways I never would’ve thought possible, drawing on metaphors that… just make sense when put in the context that Stevens provides. 

My heart broke for Blanca, a phenomenal main character with a powerful voice. I’d love to spend more time in her headspace. I especially love when she did everything in her power to punish the vile men she’d come across, and how she loved her family for generations after her death. George Sand was also an interesting character to explore, and Blanca’s connection to her was such a treat to read. I adored them. 

I thought that the switching between Blanca’s life and her ghostly experiences were done well, it didn’t feel like one timeline was being underdeveloped in favor of the other. 

I thought that the last 100 or so pages were the best, Blanca exploring the future lives of George, Chopin, Maurice, and Solange was so well done and really made for a wonderful conclusion to the story. The last page especially made the story feel so perfectly complete, I loved it.

But, I cannot give this book 5 or even 4 stars. That’s due to Nell Stevens’ bizarre creative decisions. There was absolutely no need for her to make pedophilia and over-sexualization such prominent themes. It was really uncomfortable and made it difficult to enjoy much of this book. There was no reason why Blanca had to be so young, this story honestly would have worked better had she been at least 18. There were also random instances of men in the village being predators, and it was just highly unnecessary. Authors should stop using sexual assault against women as shock value or as some poetic plot device for a revenge-arc. It’s gross, it’s disrespectful, and it ruins the story.

Thank you so much to Scribner for the free review copy in exchange for an honest review! 

Briefly, A Delicious Life - 3 Stars.

Ellen Scott

Jenell Pizarro

Anna

mimi

Francine Corry

'A gorgeous, wildly seductive novel, shimmering with intelligence, humour and joy' - Sarah Waters In 1838 Frédéric Chopin, George Sand and her children travel to a monastery in Mallorca. They are there to create and to convalesce, to live a simple life after the wildness of their Paris days. Witness to this tumultuous arrival is Blanca, the ghost of a teenage girl who has been at the monastery for over three hundred years. Blanca’s was a life cut short and she is outraged. Having lived in a world full, according to her mother, of ‘beautiful men’, she has found that in death it is the women she falls for, their beauty she cannot turn away from, and it is the women and girls who, over her centuries in the village and at the monastery, she has sought to protect from the attentions of men with what little power she has. And then George Sand arrives, this beautiful woman in a man’s clothes, and Blanca is in love. But the rest of the village is suspicious of the newcomers, and as winter sets in, as George tries to keep her family and herself from falling apart, as Chopin writes prelude after prelude in despair on his tuneless piano, their stay looks likely to end in disaster . . . Heady with the delicious scent of the Mediterranean, richly witty, and utterly compulsive, Briefly, A Delicious Life is a story about convention and breaking convention, about love – yearning, secret, forbidden, unrequited – and about men and women and the cruelty they mete out to one another. 'Electrifyingly beautiful, exhilaratingly clever . . . sensual, original, intelligent and brimming with love' - Imogen Hermes Gowar

Briefly, a Delicious Life

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