A literary sensation in France, an intoxicating and evocative debut novel about the all-consuming love affair between two women and the ruin it leaves in its wake. It's all about Sarah, her mysterious beauty, Sarah the impetuous, Sarah the passionate, Sarah the sulphurous, it's all about the exact moment when the match flares, the exact moment when that piece of wood becomes fire, when the spark lights up the darkness. A thirty-something teacher drifts through her life in Paris, raising a daughter on her own, lonely in spite of a new boyfriend. Then one night, at a friend's tepid New Year's Eve party, Sarah enters the scene like a tornado. A talented young violinist, she is loud, vivacious, appealingly unkempt in a world where everyone seems preoccupied with being 'just so'. It is the beginning of an intense relationship, tender and violent, that will upend both women's lives.