Review
From the book
jacket: As the First World War rages
on, the daily life of a small town near
the front is hardly disturbed by the
report of artillery fire and the parade
of wounded in its streets. But within
the space of a year, this illusion of
ordinary days is shattered by the deaths
of three innocents—a charming
schoolmistress from "the north," who
captured every male heart only to take
her own life without apparent reason; an
angelic eight-year-old girl, who is
strangled, her body abandoned by the
canal; and the cherished wife of the
local policeman, who dies in labor while
her husband is hunting the little girl's
murderer.
Twenty...
Beyond the Book
Philippe
Claudel was
born in 1962.
Before becoming
a novelist, he
was a special
education
teacher in Nancy
(pronounced
nonsi) , and a
screenwriter. He
lives in France
where he is
currently "professeur
de lettres" at
the university
of Nancy in
North-Eastern
France. This is
his second
novel; his
first,
Meuse
l'oubli, (
The
Forgotten Muse)...
