Description: Inspired by a true crime, the mid-century genius Hélène Bessette unfolds a murder mystery in hypnotic interludes, as only she knows how
Brief description: Hélène Bessette (1918-2000) published thirteen novels with Gallimard between 1953 and 1973, won the Prix Cazes in 1954, and was twice in the running for the Prix Goncourt and the Prix Médicis. After her editor Raymond Queneau's death in 1976, her publisher ceased to support her. In 2000, she died in poverty and in poor mental health, with her body of work out of print and largely forgotten. It was only several years after her death that her singular articulation of what, with specific intent, she called "the poetic novel" found a new and avid readership in France.
Review Quotes: This riveting translation at once slays and reinvents the mystery genre. Replete with operatic revelations.--Thúy Ðinh "NPR"