The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair
A CRIME STORY. A LOVE STORY. A WORLDWIDE PHENOMENON. MORE THAN 7 MILLION COPIES SOLD
August 30, 1975. The day of the disappearance. The day Somerset, New Hampshire, lost its innocence.
That summer, struggling author Harry Quebert fell in love with Nola Kellergan. Thirty-three years later, her body is dug up from his yard, along with a manuscript copy of the novel that made him a household name. Quebert is the only suspect.
Marcus Goldman – Quebert’s most gifted protégé – throws off his writer’s block to clear his mentor’s name. Solving the case and penning a new bestseller soon merge into one. As his book begins to take on a life of its own, the nation is gripped by the mystery of ‘The Girl Who Touched the Heart of America’.
But with Nola, in death as in life, nothing is ever as it seems.
Translated from the French by Sam Taylor
August 30, 1975. The day of the disappearance. The day Somerset, New Hampshire, lost its innocence.
That summer, struggling author Harry Quebert fell in love with Nola Kellergan. Thirty-three years later, her body is dug up from his yard, along with a manuscript copy of the novel that made him a household name. Quebert is the only suspect.
Marcus Goldman – Quebert’s most gifted protégé – throws off his writer’s block to clear his mentor’s name. Solving the case and penning a new bestseller soon merge into one. As his book begins to take on a life of its own, the nation is gripped by the mystery of ‘The Girl Who Touched the Heart of America’.
But with Nola, in death as in life, nothing is ever as it seems.
Translated from the French by Sam Taylor
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Reviews
A top-class literary thriller that smoothly outclasses its rivals
Should delight any reader who has felt bereft since finishing Gone Girl, or Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy
It's a terrific story and I'm loving it
'Powerful and dramatic stuff' Bliss.
'Exciting and moving, intelligent and imaginative ... Demands to be read once at the gallop, and then a second time slowly, savouring the details and relishing its intelligence' Allan Massie, Scotsman.
'One of the best historical novels of recent years, Greig dusts off the past and presents it with tremendous skill' Kaite Welsh, Literary Review.
'A triumph of suspense ... what sets Fair Helen above the usual run of historical novels, aside from Greig's extraordinarily deft use of language, is its moral depth, its acute sense of the intricacies of the Border feuds' John Burnside, Guardian.
'Phantoms of Breslau is a cynical, moody thriller which solidifies Krajewski's position as a distinctive voice in contemporary European fiction' Val Nolan, Irish Examiner.
'A classicist at Wroclaw University, Marek Krajewski - in his splendid series of crime novels about inter-war Breslau - disinters this buried metropolis like a fictional archaeologist... Breslau 1919 lives again... If the secret of these deaths lurks in the wartime past, the ritualistic dogma that surrounds them very faintly hints at an equally grim future' Boyd Tonkin, Independent.
'Krajewski was lecturer at the University of Wroclaw, and he prides himself on historical accuracy. His Breslau is populated by pimps, prostitutes and cynics, and it isn't hard to believe that the city will one day become one of Hitler's strongholds' Joan Smith, Sunday Times.
'Polish author Marek Krajewski does a fine job of conjuring the chaos of Breslau (now the Polish city of Wroclaw), while Mock - a man of conflicts and contradictions - makes for a refreshing protagonist' Fachtna Kelly, Sunday Business Post in Ireland.
No one knew better than Grossman what people are capable of. These stories and essays are one of the cultural monuments of the 20th century' David Herman, New Statesman.
The book of the year
An expertly realised, addictive Russian doll of a whodunnit
It's like 'Twin Peaks' meets Atonement meets In Cold Blood - the French thriller everyone is talking about
An intricate murder mystery that could be the read of the summer
The tale is expertly told, as unreliable information dances with necessary plot shifts and unexpected moments of catastrophe. An accomplished thriller
Pacy, pleasingly complex and addictive
Complex, intriguing and highly enjoyable
With enough plot twists to fill a truck, it is a racy read
Tremendous fun and almost insanely readable
Combines literariness with compulsively readable storytelling
A seductive read . . . well-crafted and highly enjoyable
Dicker has the first-rate crime novelist's ability to lead his readers up the garden path . . . An excellent story
Unimpeachably terrific . . . A playful, page-turning whodunit . . . If Norman Mailer had been accused of murder and Truman Capote had collaborated with Dominick Dunne on a tell-all about it, the result might have turned out something like this
Dicker's bestseller features a labyrinthine murder mystery and a book-within-a-book subplot . . . It's energetically written and cleverly constructed.