Nagasaki

Winner of the Académie française Grand Prix Award.

"One of those brief and understated novels that stay with the reader for a very long time."—L'Express

"Speaks directly to the heart."—Le Monde

"Eric Faye is a rare talent."—Le Figaro

There were just eight centimeters of juice now, though I'd measured fifteen before leaving the house . . . Someone had been helping themselves. And I live alone.

In a house on a suburban street in Nagasaki, meteorologist Shimura Kobo lives quietly on his own. Or so he believes. Food begins to go missing. Perturbed by this threat to his orderly life, Shimura sets up a webcam to monitor his home.

But though eager to identify his intruder, is Shimura really prepared for what the camera will reveal?

Nagasaki is based on a real news story. In 2008, a Japanese woman was found to have been secretly living in a man's house for over a year, by hiding and sleeping in a wardrobe. Éric Faye has taken this news item and transformed it into a heart-rending story about the alienation of modern life.

Born in Limoges, Éric Faye is a journalist and the prize-winning author of over twenty books.

Éric Faye is the author of many novels and travel memoirs published by Stock, including Mes trains de nuit (2005), L’homme sans empreintes (2008), Nous aurons toujours Paris (2009), Nagasaki (2010, winner of the Grand Prix for a novel from the Académie française, to be published by Gallic Books in April 2014) and Somnambule dans Istanbul (2013). In 2011 he and Christian Garcin co-wrote En descendant les fleuves, an account of their travels across eastern Russia.

Emily Boyce: Emily Boyce is in-house translator for Gallic Books. She lives in London