Loving Sabotage

Loving Sabotage (French: Le Sabotage amoureux) is a Belgian novel by Amélie Nothomb. It was first published in 1993 by the Albin Michel.

The narrator of Loving Sabotage (Le sabotage amoureux) is a five years old girl when she arrives in Beijing in 1972 as the daughter of a Belgian diplomat. She joins the other children in the diplomatic enclave, engaged in various nasty wars. She owns a bicycle , which she has convinced herself is a horse. She falls madly in love for a six year old Italian girl and attempts to gain the affections of cruel Elena.

Loving Sabotage tells the experiences of childhood and the nature of love. Nothomb tells and reinterprets her experiences with the benefit of age insights, without any pretence that the viewpoint is that of a child. She also includes some observations: on China under the Gang of Four and on the way Westerners perceived China. The tone is light-hearted but serious, and captures both the innocence of youth and the insights of adult age. Written in a balanced and crafted prose.