The Islanders: Shocking, hilarious and poignant noir
-
- $4.99
Publisher Description
In The Islanders, from the 'slyly funny' [Sunday Times] Pascal Garnier, a dinner party spirals out of control after the revealing of dark secrets.
'Bleak, often funny and never predictable' The Observer
It's a few days before Christmas in Versailles. Olivier has come to bury his mother, but the impending holidays and icy conditions have delayed the funeral. While trapped in limbo at his mother's flat, a chance encounter brings Olivier back in touch with childhood friend Jeanne and her blind brother, Rodolphe. Rodolphe suggests they have dinner together, along with a homeless man he's taken in. As the wine flows, dark secrets are spilled, and there's more than just hangovers to deal with the next morning...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the outset of this offbeat comedy of errors from Garnier (How's the Pain?), Olivier Verdier travels from Paris to Versailles, where his estranged mother has died a few days before Christmas. In Versailles, Olivier's path crosses those of three very different people: Roland Toutin, a homeless man seeking shelter and food; Rodolphe Mangin, a blind man who still enjoys visiting the Louvre; and Rodolphe's sister, Jeanne, a teacher beaten down by years of looking after him. It turns out that Jeanne and Rodolphe live across the hall from Olivier's late mother, and that Olivier and Jeanne share a secret. Decades earlier, when they were teenagers, the pair were suspected of kidnapping and murdering a two-year-old boy whom Jeanne babysat. With severely cold weather delaying his mother's burial, Olivier must remain in her apartment for several days, a development that leads to unexpected complications. Readers who appreciate the gallows humor of Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry will be pleased.
