Grey Souls
Author(s): Philippe Claudel
A literary detective story about the murder of a young girl in a small town in Northern France in 1917
This is ostensibly a detective story, about a crime that is committed in 1917, and solved 20 years later. The location is a small town in Northern France. The war is still being fought in the trenches, within sight and sound of the town, but the men of the town have been spared the slaughter because they are needed in the local factory. One freezing cold morning in the dead of winter, a beautiful ten year old girl, one of three daughters of the local innkeeper, is found strangled and dumped in the canal. Suspicion falls on two deserters who are picked up near the town. Their interrogation and sentencing is brutal and swift.
Twenty years later, the narrator, a local policeman, puts together what actually happened. On the night the deserters were arrested and interrogated, he was sitting by the bedside of his dying wife. He believes that justice was not done and wants to set the record straight. But the death of the child was not the only crime committed in the town during those weeks.
First published 2005.
Product Information
A beautiful, yet chilling detective story with the hypnotic quality of a fairy tale Longlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 'A masterpiece...a mesmeric study of individual and collective guilt' Daily Mail 'An odd, disturbing novel, haunted by ghosts, the victims of crimes that are long past but ever present...a page-turning whodunit with a subtle aftertaste' Sunday Telegraph 'An intriguing tale...the author carves each scene with lexical precision and his lush descriptions of these tormented mental landscapes produce an overwhelming and almost tactile effect' Financial Times A bestseller in France, shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt and the Prix Femina. Winner of the Prix Renaudot
'Claudel's exquisite, delicate writing is what makes this narrative a small masterpiece, to be read word for word, savouring the experience.' GOOD BOOK GUIDE (May 2006) 'Characters and settings are described with a sharp realism reminiscent of Simenon - or indeed Zola. Those looking for allegories about a society choosing not to acknowledge the horror at its centre will certainly find them; others will enjoy this elegantly constructed work for the deftness of its characterisation, its description of the rural landscape, and the unmistakable flavour that it conveys of French life.' -- Christina Koning THE TIMES (15/4/06) 'An atmospheric whodunit wreathed in winter mists and mystery, but given legs by a sturdy cast of rustic functionaries.' INDEPENDENT (5/5/06) 'A hypnotic fairy tale of a detective story' DAILY EXPRESS (21/4/06)
Philippe Claudel was born in 1962. He has won several awards for his fiction, including the Prix Goncourt for Stories in 2003, France's leading literary award.
General Fields
- :
- : phoenix
- : phoenix
- : 06 April 2006
- : United Kingdom
- : books
Special Fields
- : Philippe Claudel
- : Paperback
- : New edition
- : 843.914
- : 208
