Flowers of Darkness
A Novel
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4.1 • 8 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
From the internationally bestselling author of Sarah's Key comes Tatiana de Rosnay's Flowers of Darkness, a riveting and emotionally intense novel, set in a near future Paris, where a woman confronts past betrayal and present mystery
Author Clarissa Katsef is struggling to write her next book. She’s just snagged a brand new artist residency in an ultra-modern apartment, with a view of all of Paris, a dream for any novelist in search of tranquility. But since moving in, she has had the feeling of being watched. Is there reason to be paranoid? Or is her distraction and discomfort the result of her husband’s recent shocking betrayal? Or is that her beloved Paris lies altered outside her windows? A city that will never be quite the same, a city with a scar at its center?
Stuck inside, in the midst of a sweltering heat wave, Clarissa enlists her beloved granddaughter in her investigation of the mysterious, high tech building even as she finds herself drawn back into the orbit of her first husband who is still the one who knows her most intimately, who shares the past grief that she has never quite let go.
Staying true to her favorite themes—the imprint of the place, the weight of secrets—de Rosnay weaves an intrigue of thrilling suspense and emotional power.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Writer Clarissa Katsef, the protagonist of this intriguing if slow-moving near-future thriller from bestseller de Rosnay (The Rain Watcher), has spent 20 years with her second husband until she discovers he's been cheating on her. Luckily, she's found the perfect refuge: a technologically advanced apartment complex in Paris that's run by a mysterious organization called C.A.S.A. and is dedicated to giving artists an inexpensive, supposedly art-conducive environment, complete with an AI (which Clarissa names Mrs. Dalloway). Instead of feeling inspired, Clarissa begins to feel watched, tired, and creeped out by a neighbor's suspicious disappearance. She's also haunted by dreams of her first, stillborn child. And when a 19-year-old writer and fan reaches out and wants to meet for coffee, even this appears to be part of C.A.S.A.'s hidden agenda. However, when Clarissa and her beloved 14-year-old granddaughter begin to investigate her uneasy feelings about the technology and the neighbor's disappearance, they can't find much. Nearly plotless, this sensitive examination of relationships and the nature of privacy will appeal mainly to readers of literary fiction. Suspense fans may feel shortchanged.
