The Dark Angels: A Novel

The Dark Angels, which was released in English on the eve of François Mauriac's Nobel Prize in Literature triumph in 1952, follows the characters of Alain Forcas and his sister Tota from his 1930 novel What Was Lost through a web of family and extramarital relationships. Alain, now the curé of the village, is presented with Gabriel Gradère's confession, which binds him to his mistress, Aline, for the rest of his life. Gabriel has returned to his boyhood home in order to defraud Desbats, his rival for Mathilde's heart. Mathilde, on the other hand, adores Gabriel's son Andrès, who is head over heels in love with Tota. The threat of violence is hung over the town by emotional manipulation and desire distortion, and Alain is left to confront the full, perilous breadth of his priestly responsibility.

Superbly executed, The Dark Angels follows the progression of an obsession with revenge to its ultimate fate of self-destruction.