« À la fin de décembre 1999, une surprenante série d'événements tragiques s'abattit sur Beauval, au premier rang desquels, bien sûr, la disparition du petit Rémi Desmedt. Dans cette région couverte de forêts, soumise à des rythmes lents, la disparition soudaine de cet enfant provoqua la stupeur et fut même considérée, par bien des habitants, comme le signe annonciateur des catastrophes à venir.
Pour Antoine, qui fut au centre de ce drame, tout commença par la mort du chien.» Pierre Lemaitre, Prix Goncourt 2013 avec Au revoir là-haut, revient ici à une forme brève de roman psychologique noir, où l'on retrouve son art unique d'émouvoir et de torturer son lecteur.
Un huis clos oppressant où l'on reconnaît la patte d'un roi du thriller, aussi talentueux dans la petite histoire que dans la grande. Valérie Gans, Figaro Madame.
Un roman dur, admirable, empreint de mensonges, de terreurs nocturnes et de culpabilité. Bernard Poirette, RTL.
Robe de marié, Cadres noirs, Trois jours et une vie, Le Serpent majuscule. Quatre fictions indépendantes, quatre univers contrastés, quatre tonalités stylistiques. Dans tous, la faute commise ou l'injustice subie agit comme une bombe à retardement. Une mécanique de précision. Le choc en retour sera terrible : folie, vengeance, meurtre. Méfiez-vous des déclassés, des rejetés, des persécutés. Ils n'oublient rien.
Les mordus du genre y trouveront leur compte de vérités cachées, d'investigations, de révélations. Les autres y liront du Lemaitre chimiquement pur. Tonino Benacquista
@2@@20@Now @21@@20@a major French film @21@@20@@18@Au revoir l@19@@18@à@19@@18@-haut - @19@@21@@20@Prix Goncourt-winning masterpiece by the writer who brought you @18@Alex@19@, @18@Irène@19@ and @18@Camille@19@@21@@20@.@21@@16@@20@@21@@16@@20@October 1918: the war on the Western Front is all but over. Desperate for one last chance of promotion, the ambitious Lieutenant Henri d'Aulnay Pradelle sends two scouts over the top, and secretly shoots them in the back to incite his men to heroic action once more.@21@@3@@2@And so is set in motion a series of devastating events that will inextricably bind together the fates and fortunes of Pradelle and the two soldiers who witness his crime: Albert Maillard and édouard Pericourt.@3@@2@Back in civilian life, Albert and édouard struggle to adjust to a society whose reverence for its dead cannot quite match its resentment for those who survived. But the two soldiers conspire to enact an audacious form of revenge against the country that abandoned them to penury and despair, with a scheme to swindle the whole of France on an epic scale.@3@@2@Meanwhile, believing her brother killed in action, édouard's sister Madeleine has married Pradelle, who is running a little scam of his own...@3@@2@@20@Translated from the French by Frank Wynne@21@@3@
@2@@20@LONGLISTED FOR THE CWA INTERNATIONAL DAGGER 2018@21@@3@@2@Antoine is twelve years old. His parents are divorced and he lives with his mother in Beauval, a small, backwater town surrounded by forests, where everyone knows everyone's business, and nothing much ever happens. But in the last days of 1999, a series of events unfolds, culminating in the shocking vanishing without trace of a young child. The adults of the town are at a loss to explain the disappearance, but for Antoine, it all begins with the violent death of his neighbour's dog. From that one brutal act, his fate and the fate of his neighbour's six year old son are bound forever.@3@@2@In the years following Remi's disappearance, Antoine wrestles with the role his actions played. As a seemingly inescapable net begins to tighten, breaking free from the suffocating environs of Beauval becomes a gnawing obsession. But how far does he have to run, and how long will it take before his past catches up with him again?@3@@2@@20@Translated from the French by Frank Wynne@21@@3@
@2@Alain Delambre is a 57-year-old former HR executive, drained by four years of hopeless unemployment.@3@@2@All he is offered are small, demoralizing jobs. He has reached his very lowest ebb, and can see no way out.@3@@2@So when a major company finally invites him to an interview, Alain Delambre is ready to do anything, borrow money, shame his wife and his daughters and even participate in the ultimate recruitment test: a role-playing game that involves hostage-taking.@3@@2@Alain Delambre commits body and soul in this struggle to regain his dignity.@3@@2@But if he suddenly realised that the dice had been loaded against him from the start, his fury would be limitless.@3@@2@And what began as a role-play game could quickly become a bloodbath.@3@
@2@@20@Sophie is haunted by the things she can't remember - and visions from the past she will never forget.@21@@3@@2@One morning, she wakes to find that the little boy in her care is dead. She has no memory of what happened. And whatever the truth, her side of the story is no match for the evidence piled against her.@3@@2@ Her only hiding place is in a new identity. A new life, with a man she has met online.@3@@2@ But Sophie is not the only one keeping secrets . . .@3@@2@For fans of @20@Gone Girl@21@ and Lemaitre's own internationally bestselling @20@Alex@21@, @20@Blood Wedding@21@ is a compelling psychological thriller with a formidable female protagonist@3@
October 1918. The war on the Western Front is all butover for most soldiers - except the ambitious Lieutenant Henri d'AulnayPradelle. Desperate for one last chance of promotion, Pradelle sends two scoutsover the top, and secretly shoots them in the back to incite his men to heroicaction once more. When Albert Maillard realises how the two soldiersmust have died, Pradelle is ready to go to any lengths to silence him. Pushedinto a shell hole and buried alive, Albert is left to face a horrific death -or he is until another soldier, édouard Pericourt digs him out in the nick oftime, loosing half his face to a piece of flying shrapnel for his troubles. So the fates and fortunes of this unlikely pair arebound together. Back in civilian life, both struggle to adjust to a society whosereverence for its dead cannot quite match its resentment for those whosurvived. But Albert and édouard conspire to enact an audaciousform of revenge against the country that abandoned them - first to the trenchesand then to penury and despair - with a scheme to swindle the whole of Franceon an epic scale. Meanwhile, believing her brother killed in action,édouard's sister Madeleine has married Henri d'Aulnay Pradelle, who is runninga little scam of his own...
