Mister Memory
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
A dazzling literary mystery from prizewinning author Marcus Sedgwick, for fans of Scarlett Thomas, Carlos Ruiz Zafon and Patrick Suskind.
In Paris, in the year 1899, Marcel Després is arrested for the murder of his wife and transferred to Salpêtrière asylum. And so the story might have stopped.
But this is no ordinary patient: Marcel Després, Mister Memory, is a man who cannot forget. And it is no ordinary case: the hurried cover-up hints at dark secrets in the shadows.
A policeman and a doctor decide to unravel the mystery...but the answers lie inside Marcel's head.
And how can he tell what is significant when he remembers every detail of every moment of his entire life?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fin de si cle Paris provides the backdrop for this outstanding thriller from Sedgwick (A Love like Blood), who creates a sense of intimacy with the reader through darkly humorous omniscient narration reminiscent of Dumas ("Paris at that time can be described as a fairy tale; assuming it's understood that fairy tales are brutish, dark and violent"). One night, Marcel Despr s, a man with a photographic memory, comes home to his studio apartment to find his wife, Ondine, in bed with a male acquaintance of theirs. The police arrest Marcel soon after he shoots Ondine dead. The motive eliminates the risk of execution, but Insp. Laurent Petit, a dedicated policeman haunted by the death of his fianc e, is shocked when he learns that the murderer has been summarily declared insane and transferred to the asylum of Salp tri re. Petit's quest for the truth behind Ondine's murder coincides with the efforts of Dr. Lucien Morel, an alienist at Salp tri re, to understand Marcel's phenomenal gift. Sedgwick thoughtfully explores fundamental questions about the relationship of memory and identity.
