The Black Notebook

Patrick Modiano

ISBN 10: 0857054899 ISBN 13: 9780857054890

Publisher: MacLehose Press, 2016

Synopsis

[Translated by Mark Polizzotti]

In the aftermath of Algeria's war of independence, Paris was a city rife with suspicion and barely suppressed violence. Amid this tension, Jean, a young writer adrift, met and fell for Dannie, an enigmatic woman fleeing a troubled past. Half a century later, with his old black notebook as a guide, Jean retraces this fateful period in his life, recounting how, through Dannie, he became mixed up with a group of unsavory characters connected by a shadowy crime. Soon Jean too was a person of interest to the detective pursuing their case -- a detective who would prove instrumental in revealing Dannie's darkest secret.

About this title

From the Back Cover

1960s Paris, a mysterious girl, a group of shady characters, danger . . . Modiano s folklore is set out from the beginning . . . and sheer magic follows once more. Vogue

The prose elliptical, muted, eloquent falls on the reader like an enchantment . . . No one is currently writing such beautiful tales of loss, melancholy, and remembrance. Independent

Sublime . . . [A] magnificent novel that reawakens days long past, illuminating them with a dazzling light. Elle (France)

In the aftermath of Algeria s war of independence, Paris was a city rife with suspicion and barely suppressed violence. Amid this tension, Jean, a young writer adrift, met and fell for Dannie, an enigmatic woman fleeing a troubled past. A half century later, with his old black notebook as a guide, he retraces this fateful period in his life, recounting how, through Dannie, he became mixed up with a group of unsavory characters connected by a shadowy crime. Soon Jean, too, was a person of interest to the detective pursuing their case a detective who would prove instrumental in revealing Dannie s darkest secret.

The Black Notebook bears all the hallmarks of this Nobel Prize winning literary master s unsettling and intensely atmospheric style. Once again, Patrick Modiano invites us into his unique world, a Paris infused with melancholy, uncertain danger, and the fading echoes of lost love.

Never before has Modiano written a novel as lyrical as this . . . Both carefully wrought and superbly fluid, sustained by pure poetry. Le Monde

Patrick Modiano is the author of more than twenty novels, including several bestsellers. He has won the Prix Goncourt, the Grand Prix National des Lettres, and many other honors. In 2014 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. He lives in Paris.

Mark Polizzotti has translated more than forty books from the French, including Modiano s Suspended Sentences. He is director of the publications program at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
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About the Author

Patrick Modiano is a bestselling novelist and the winner of some of the most prestigious literary awards in France, including the Prix Goncourt and the Prix Mondial Cino Del Duca for lifetime achievement. In 2014 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for ''the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation.''

About this edition

• Publisher: MacLehose Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0857054899
• ISBN 13: 9780857054890
• Binding: Stationery
• Number of pages: 160