The Stone Boy
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The bestselling French phenomenon, winner of the Prix Lion Noir, now available in English for the first time...
When Madame Préau returns to her own house outside Paris after several years spent in a convalescent home, she immediately notices that the neighborhood has changed. Now, instead of a beautiful garden next door there is a new house. And she can see directly into her new neighbors' windows.
Madame Préau quickly feels that something isn't right. Her neighbors have two perfectly healthy children who play in the yard after school. But there is also a third child: a young boy who looks malnourished and abused, and tosses small stones at her window in an apparent call for help. The family denies his existence.
But is the little boy real, or merely a hallucination of a lonely, mentally unstable old woman cut off from her own beloved grandson?
When the police refuse to listen to her, Madame Préau decides to take matters into her own hands. She's determined to help the little boy, and she'll do anything to make sure he's safe...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
French author Loubi re makes her U.S. debut with a creepy psychological thriller. After 10 years convalescing, Madame Pr au, a retired headmistress, returns to her home near Paris, distraught to find that her doctor son, Martin, has neglected the house. What's more, the woodland view outside her window has been replaced by the home of a young family. She focuses her binoculars on the yard across the street, where an energetic boy and girl swing and quarrel, while alone in a corner playing with stones is a scrawny boy who looks uncannily like Bastien, the grandson Martin keeps from her. Convinced that the boy is being abused, she vows to save him. With every page, Pr au seems more unhinged: she's hearing mice, making outrageous accusations against Martin, and doing very nasty things to cats. Is the boy real? Is Martin a loyal son or a conspirator? The truth is as chilling as the rest of this unsettling tale.
