Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A painter contends with the ghosts of the French countryside in a psychological literary thriller by a major French writer.
An eccentric Parisian artist moves to La Bassée, a hamlet in the French countryside, to work on her paintings in peace. The town has only three other inhabitants: Patrice Bergogne, inheritor of his family's farm, his wife, Marion, and their daughter, Ida. When the artist receives an anonymous poison-pen letter in the mail--and then another one, delivered by hand--she wonders who would wish to disturb her and the village's peace. Over the course of the novel, Mauvignier follows these four characters' lives, telescoping from broad landscapes to gauzy recollections, building toward a menacing finish.
Written in rhythmic prose that doubles back as it traverses time, Stories of the Night asks whether we can ever escape our past--whether, in its attention to the minutiae of daily life, such a thing as a quiet life exists. As the artist works to exorcise obsessions through her paintings, and her neighbors are revisited by past decisions, we understand that even a place long "destined to languish, a world uniquely fated to narrow," has a history they must contend with. Stories of the Night is the magnum opus by a major French writer.
Synopsis
A painter contends with the ghosts of the French countryside in a psychological literary thriller by a major French writer.
Buried deep in rural France, little remains of the isolated hamlet of La Bassée, save three houses and a curiously assembled quartet: Patrice Bergogne, inheritor of his family's farm; his wife, Marion; their daughter, Ida; and their neighbor, Christine, an artist. While Patrice plans a surprise for his wife's fortieth birthday, inexplicable events disrupt the hamlet's peaceable existence: anonymous, menacing letters, an unfamiliar car rolling up the driveway. And as night falls, strangers stalk the hamlet, looking for a way in.
Told in rhythmic, propulsive prose that weaves seamlessly from one consciousness to the next over the course of a day, Laurent Mauvignier's The Birthday Party is a deft unraveling of the stories we hide from others and from ourselves, a tale of the nightmarish irruptions of the past into the present, written by a major contemporary French writer.
Synopsis
"A real-time study in crippling self-consciousness, the fragility of normalcy, and the reality of violence."--The New York Times
Buried deep in rural France, little remains of the isolated hamlet of the Three Lone Girls, save a few houses and a curiously assembled quartet: Patrice Bergogne, inheritor of his family's farm; his wife, Marion; their daughter, Ida; and their neighbor, Christine, an artist. While Patrice plans a surprise for his wife's fortieth birthday, inexplicable events start to disrupt the hamlet's quiet existence: anonymous, menacing letters, an unfamiliar
car rolling up the driveway. And as night falls, strangers stalk the houses, unleashing
a nightmarish chain of events.
Told in rhythmic, propulsive prose that weaves seamlessly from one consciousness to the next over the course of a day, Laurent Mauvignier's The Birthday Party is a deft unraveling of the stories we hide from others and from ourselves, a gripping tale of the violent irruptions of the past into the present, written by a major contemporary French writer.
Synopsis
New York Times Editors' Choice
"A real-time study in crippling self-consciousness, the fragility of normalcy, and the reality of violence."--The New York Times
Buried deep in rural France, little remains of the isolated hamlet of the Three Lone Girls, save a few houses and a curiously assembled quartet: Patrice Bergogne, inheritor of his family's farm; his wife, Marion; their daughter, Ida; and their neighbor, Christine, an artist. While Patrice plans a surprise for his wife's fortieth birthday, inexplicable events start to disrupt the hamlet's quiet existence: anonymous, menacing letters, an unfamiliar
car rolling up the driveway. And as night falls, strangers stalk the houses, unleashing
a nightmarish chain of events.
Told in rhythmic, propulsive prose that weaves seamlessly from one consciousness to the next over the course of a day, Laurent Mauvignier's The Birthday Party is a deft unraveling of the stories we hide from others and from ourselves, a gripping tale of the violent irruptions of the past into the present, written by a major contemporary French writer.