Out of the Dark

Patrick Modiano, winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature, is the author of more than thirty books and one of France's most admired contemporary novelists. Out of the Dark is a moody, expertly rendered tale of a love affair between two drifters.

The narrator, writing in 1995, looks back thirty years to a time when, having abandoned his studies and selling off old art books to get by, he comes to know G rard Van Bever and Jacqueline, a young, enigmatic couple who seem to live off roulette winnings. He falls in love with Jacqueline; they run off to England together, where they share a few sad, aimless months, until one day she disappears. Fifteen years later, in Paris, they meet again, a reunion that only recalls the haunting inaccessibility of the past: they spend a few hours together, and the next day, Jacqueline, now married, disappears once again. Almost fifteen years after that, he sees her yet again, this time from a distance he chooses not to bridge. A profoundly affecting novel, Out of the Dark is poignant, strange, delicate, melancholy, and sadly hilarious.


Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Published: 10/01/1998
ISBN: 9780803231962
Pages: 139
Weight: 0.72lbs
Size: 8.27h x 5.72w x 0.63d

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 09/21/1998 pg. 75
Kirkus Reviews 10/15/1998 pg. 1490
New York Times 01/10/1999 pg. 18
Library Journal 10/01/1998