Monsieur Lambert (in French)

A glimpse of the everyday lives and secret passions of the regulars in a small Parisian bistro captured perfectly through Sempé’s perceptive illustrations and the finely judged translation provided by Anthea Bell.

When Monsieur Lambert does not turn up for lunch at his usual time, the other regulars speculate that he must have met a woman. The diners start discussing women they have loved and lost, thereby revealing unexpected facets of their lives and personalities.

The restaurant and its regulars are vividly brought to life in a series of drawings which, together with handwritten dialogue bubbling in a laconic narrative, display Sempé’s signature unerring eye and ear for the telling details of human behaviour.

A classic, first published in 1965, is now available in English for the first time.