The List of my Desires

Jocelyne is 47 and runs her own dressmaking shop. She's a bit overweight, her husband is very ordinary and her best friends are the twins who run the hairdresser next door. Jocelyn has reached the point where she is examining her life and measuring it against what her teenage self had imagined. We discover that Jocelyn's mother dropped dead suddenly when she was 17, and her father fell ill shortly afterwards, so she had to take the job in the shop rather than pursue her dreams. But then is she really unhappy? She has her weekends away, her friendships, her sewing blog, her work and its small pleasures...

Then the twins persuade Jocelyn to enter the euromillion lottery and she wins 18 million euros. She could do anything with the money, change her life completely, but what does she really want? She doesn't tell anyone about the win... not just yet... Without cashing the cheque she begins to write down her 'list of desires' - a new coat, a bathmat, a visit to her daughter in England. She goes in to the Chanel shop in Paris, thinking she could buy anything she wants but will a new bag really make her any happier than the sandwich her husband prepared for her that morning. Meanwhile, her dressmaking blog is taking off, helping Jocelyn to help other women.

But then the question is taken out of her hands when someone close to Jocelyne acts with devastating consequences...

Read by Jilly Bond

(p) 2013 Orion Publishing Group