Jette ton pain (Cast thy bread) is Alice Rivaz’ masterpiece. This powerful book is a long recollection combining all the topics of her previous books.

This novel comprises two parts of equal length, relating the story of two sleepless nights. In the first part, Christine Grave, the protagonist of the novel, recalls her past. Lying still in bed for fear of waking her ailing mother sleeping in the adjoining room, she mulls over the memories that sweep over her and the fears that trouble her. Memory works by association, and the sentences become longer and more complex as they mimic the protagonist’s thoughts, thus giving the text a Proustian tone. In the second half, Christine’s mother has passed away, leaving her daughter confronted with the question of the meaning of life. Her secret dream of writing is now in the offing. Just as her mother used to tidy away bits and pieces, Christine kept all her drafts in a chest. This novel ends just as she takes them out and sits down at her typewriter.

In Traces de vie (Traces of life, miscellaneous notes), Alice Rivaz described her novel as,

A kind of vast critical portrait of a woman observed by an invisible narrator (her double) from both the outside and from within, contemplating her and, at times, judging her very harshly.

In 1980, this culmination of Alice Rivaz’ novel writing was crowned with the Grand Prix C. F. Ramuz. Critics gave it an extremely favourable review.