The Great Swindle

Author(s): Pierre Lemaitre

Crime

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.
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 Péricourt.
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.
Meanwhile, believing her brother killed in action, Édouard's sister Madeleine has married Pradelle, who is running a little scam of his own...


Product Information

Winner of Prix Goncourt 2013.

Lemaitre packs a real punch: captivating, deeplymoving, The Great Swindle demonstarates his great talent as a writer. Hiswriting is lively, controlled, original. This is a stunning novel that will notgo unnoticed. Lire After a stunning start, Pierre Lemaitre keeps upthe pace from one end to the other of this fantastical, extraordinary novel,which lives up to all its early promise... Impossible to put down. Livres Hebdo A superb novel, from beginning to end! Huffington Post

Pierre Lemaitre was born in Paris in 1951. He worked for many years as a teacher of literature before becoming a novelist. He was awarded the Crime Writers' Association International Dagger, alongside Fred Vargas, for Alex. In 2013 his novel Au revoir l -haut (The Great Swindle, in English translation) won the Prix Goncourt, France's leading literary award.

General Fields

  • : 9780857053251
  • : Quercus
  • : MacLehose Press
  • : September 2015
  • : United Kingdom
  • : November 2015
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Pierre Lemaitre
  • : Paperback
  • : 1115
  • : en
  • : 843.92
  • : 464