Emmanuel Bove’s Armand follows the sensitive title character and the people in his orbit over the course of a day. There is Jeanne, Armand’s wealthy lover and keeper; his awkward and penniless old friend Lucien; and Lucien’s younger sister Marguerite, who is as clumsy and poor as her brother. Bove’s gift for nuance has been compared to that of Proust, and in Armand his writing is at its most powerful.