If Only

Amélie and Vincent meet as students at the Sorbonne at the end of the 1980s. It's love at first sight for both, but neither dares confess their feelings to the other. They agree to meet again, but Amélie is late. And in those few minutes, it's not just a date she misses out on, but her entire life.

Vincent and Amélie get swept up by life as it carries them toward fates they no longer control, jobs they didn't choose, marriages and relationships that become rocky. Life that takes them down paths, through doors, into hallways, for ten, twenty, or thirty years…

It is the story of two lives in parallel across the decades, the story of their relationships and careers, the story of chance encounters that bring them together again and again. Will chance give them the opportunity to get together?



AUTHOR Eliette Abécassis is a French writer and philosopher, born in Strasbourg. She also writes for the theater, the movies, and French songs. She regularly appears on television, on the radio, and collaborates with newspapers such as the Huffington Post and Le Figaro, in literary criticism or to give a philosophical view of current affairs.

She is committed to associations for the defense of the rights of women and children and against violence against women. She helped to create Le CorP—which is against the commodification of women and children—as well as Exils intra muros, which defends families in the street.



TRANSLATOR Johanna McCalmont is a freelance translator and interpreter from Northern Ireland. She obtained an MA (Hons) in French and German at the University of Edinburgh, followed by an MSc in Translation and Interpreting at Heriot Watt University. She translates from Dutch, French, German, and Italian into English. In 2020, she was a finalist in the Gabo Prize for Literature in Translation.

In addition to working as a translator, she also interprets at international conferences and literary events such as the Bergen International Festival, the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the Hay Festival, and the International Booker Prize.