The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair

Joel Dicker, Sam Taylor (trans.)

The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Quercus Publishing
Country
United Kingdom
Published
12 May 2015
Pages
640
ISBN
9781848663268

The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair

Joel Dicker, Sam Taylor (trans.)

August 30, 1975.The day of the disappearance. The day Somerset, New Hampshire, lost its innocence. That summer, struggling author Harry Quebert fell in love with fifteen-year-old Nola Kellergan. Thirty-three years later, her body is dug up from his yard, along with a manuscript copy of the novel that made him a household name.

Quebert is the only suspect. Marcus Goldman - Quebert’s most gifted protege - throws off his writer’s block to clear his mentor’s name. Solving the case and penning a new bestseller soon merge into one. As his book begins to take on a life of its own, the nation is gripped by the mystery of ‘The Girl Who Touched the Heart of America.’ But with Nola, in death as in life, nothing is ever as it seems.

Review

Before using this hefty book as a doorstop this autumn, enjoy the 600 pages of small-town intrigue, Russian-doll narrative, backwards chapters and a story that has such a twist I almost called in dead to work so I could stay home and finish it.

Touted by one critic as having all the elements of a Great American Novel (not bad for a book written by a Swiss author in French), it follows literary celebrity Marcus Goldman, panicking about the looming deadline of his second book after becoming rich and glorified for his first. Distraction comes in the form of his old mentor, the renowned author Harry Quebert, who hired some gardeners to dig up his lawn and uncovered the body of 15-year-old Nola Kellergan, a local girl who disappeared more than 30 years ago. With the manuscript of Quebert’s famous book, The Origin of Evil, found buried with her, Quebert is the main suspect – but Goldman believes he is not Nola’s killer. So, avoiding his rabid publishers, Goldman heads to the town of Aurora, New Hampshire, to find out the truth.

Unwrapping the layers of this book is a delight: delving into the history of Harry, Nola, and everyone else who passed through Aurora in 1975 is best done on a comfortable couch with a cup of tea and instructions to everyone to leave you alone. Joël Dicker, young and dashing, has whipped up quite the frenzy himself, and writers writing about writers writing about writers creates an interesting overlap. Some moments are prone to melodrama, but these are easily forgotten among the beautiful literary touches – and cresting the final roller-coaster hill of this book is something else. The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair is worth discovering.


Fiona Hardy

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