WHAT SHE SAW

Lana Gibson takes a trip to the City Of Lights during one of her manic, bi-polar episodes. She’s there, she thinks, to catch an art exhibition and ride the wave of this particular high. So long as she takes her meds, her heightened curiosity and elation will stay under control. With shades of the great Patricia Highsmith, the novel evokes the city of Paris beautifully just as it does the mindset of a woman’s mind unravelling.

The luxurious Hotel Le Chevalier is host to the great and good of Parisian life. Ferdie is a driver for M. Fournier, a potential Presidential Candidate in the vein of Dominique Strauss-Kahn with a penchant for young women. Vallette is Fournier’s dangerous right hand who jostles to keep his position intact. Were it not for the petty jealousies between these two henchmen, Lana might never have been witness to Fournier’s special celebration in the penthouse suite that night.

Presumed to know far more than she does, Lana is chased across Paris as she becomes increasingly elated and falls in with a political splinter-group looking to bring Fournier down. She’s not sure who she can trust; her former lover or the supposed “do-gooders” seeking political justice? As her passport and meds disappear, her anxiety to simply get home escalates as Fournier closes in.

The author taps into the current fascination with strong female characters and here the “woman in peril” narrative is subverted with Lana, who thinks she isn’t strong enough—but of course when pushed, discovers just how strong she can become.

Gerry Stembridge is an extremely well-regarded director and writer living in Dublin. He is the author of four previous novels: The Effect of Her, Unspoken, Counting Down and According to Luke. He has written and directed film and television. Credits include About Adam with Kate Hudson, the screenplay for Ordinary Decent Criminal (starring Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell and Linda Fiorentino); and he co-wrote Nora (a film about James Joyce and Nora Barnacle, starring Ewan McGregor and Susan Lynch). He is the co-creator, with Dermot Morgan, of Scrap Saturday. He is Film Artist in Residence at UCC for the year. He is currently directing a new play at The Abbey Theatre, Dublin.