The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair
2016 Longlist

The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair

Translated from the French by Sam Taylor

ABOUT
THE BOOK

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 protégé – 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.

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Joël
Dicker

Joël Dicker was born in Geneva in 1985. He studied Drama in Paris before returning to his home city to study Law. His first novel, Les Derniers Jours de Nos Pères, won the Prix des Ecrivains Genevois, a prestigious award for unpublished manuscripts. The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, nominated for the Prix Goncourt and winner of the Grand Prix du Roman de l’Académie Française and the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens, has sold more than two million copies across Europe.

Joël Dicker was born in Geneva in 1985. He studied Drama in Paris before returning to his home city to study Law. His first novel, Les Derniers Jours de Nos Pères, won the Prix des Ecrivains Genevois, a prestigious award for unpublished manuscripts. The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, nominated for the Prix Goncourt and winner of the Grand Prix du Roman de l’Académie Française and the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens, has sold more than two million copies across Europe.

NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

The international bestseller by the Swiss novelist Joël Dicker is a real page-turner and has won several literary awards in France. Partly a detective story and partly a moral sketch, the novel is intelligently constructed. Dicker is the master of deception, lies and plot twists. He creates colourful quirky characters along the lines of “Twin Peaks”. It’s a real old-fashioned reading adventure.

This novel is both a great thriller and quality literature. It is a novel about murder, the price of fame and success, modern media and love. It is also a story about what it takes to be a truly great writer.

A young author being prey to writer’s block strives to defend his former teacher from murder accusation and to write again. This literary thriller has several plot lines, alternating periods and surprising twists and presents the sensation-hungry media and the money-grabbing book publishing in the modern American life.

The Truth…is a cleverly constructed literary thriller, one that you cannot stop reading until you have reached the end. The story is full of surprises and sudden turns. The book seems to appeal to a broad group of readers, ranging from young and less serious readers to an older group of readers, who read more serious stuff.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Date published
07/05/2015
Author
Publisher
MacLehose Press
Translator
Sam Taylor
Translation
Translated from the French by Sam Taylor

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