Paris Nocturne

An accident, a vanishing, a memory gap, a strange dream: a classic noir work of fiction by Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano

This uneasy, compelling novel begins with a nighttime accident on the streets of Paris. The unnamed narrator, a teenage boy, is hit by a car whose driver he vaguely recalls having met before. The mysterious ensuing events, involving a police van, a dose of ether, awakening in a strange hospital, and the disappearance of the woman driver, culminate in a packet being pressed into the boy's hand. It is an envelope stuffed full of bank notes. The confusion only deepens as the characters grow increasingly apprehensive; meanwhile, readers are held spellbound.

Modiano's low-key writing style, his preoccupation with memory and its untrustworthiness, and his deep concern with timeless moral questions have earned him an international audience of devoted readers. This beautifully rendered translation brings another of his finest works to an eagerly waiting English-language audience. Paris Nocturne has been named "a perfect book" by Lib ration, while L'Express observes, "Paris Nocturne is cloaked in darkness, but it is a novel that is turned toward the light."

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 10/27/2015
ISBN: 9780300215885
Pages: 160
Weight: 0.40lbs
Size: 7.70h x 4.90w x 0.60d

Review Citations: Library Journal 09/01/2015 pg. 94
Publishers Weekly 08/24/2015
Booklist 10/15/2015 pg. 23
New York Times Book Review 12/13/2015 pg. 18