Comme le sable (As the sand) inaugurates what Alice Rivaz had conceived as a 'novelistic cycle' in several volumes entitled Un temps pour tout (A time for everything), “where we would see the same characters resurface” in 1928, 1933, 1936, 1939-40 and 1945. Le Creux de la Vague (The trough of the wave) is the second and only other volume published in this project, two decades later.

The novel is set in Geneva in early 1928. The narrative revolves around two evenings: one spent at the Winleys’ house and the other at a BIT/ILO (International Labour Office) ball. The interaction between the characters drives the novel. The plot is confined to a few episodes in their love lives.

André Chateney, a department head at the BIT/ILO, is captivated by Nelly Demierre’s voice and falls in love with her; he wants to marry her and try to make her a famous singer. He has been dreaming of becoming a professional orchestra conductor for some time. Seven years earlier, the protagonist, Hélène Blum, had a brief affair with him. She never stopped loving him and defies him to explain his silence and the grounds for their break-up. As for the very young Claire-Lise Rivier, she is deeply in love with her childhood friend Marc Jeanrenaud, but he only shows hurtful indifference in return. Allusions to André Gide allow readers to suspect the real reason for his indifference. Another character is the “pretty old Mrs Peter”. She goes on to play a more significant role as a committed militant character in Le Creux de la vague (The trough of the wave).

The novelist aimed to describe the history of the mid-twentieth century as experienced by real people, whether they were aware or unaware of the disasters to come. 

Never mind the plots, which interest me less and less and even bore me more and more. But how can I write a novel without a plot?

Traces de vie (Traces of life), May 1943