The Pigeon

Set in Paris, this is the story of a day in the life of Jonathan Noel. It is a story that reveals, beneath the surface of a supremely well-ordered life, the hair-trigger tensions that can push a person to the brink of insanity.

Jonathan Noel has been a security guard on the steps of a French bank for years. He has calculated a strict mental regime which will ensure his continued vigilance and the bank's continued appreciation of his services. In his private life as in his public, living in a tiny one-room apartment, planning for the future are his bywords.

This autonomic existence is one he neither dislikes nor particularly enjoys. But he is protected by it, from memories of the past and from guilt. Until the day the pigeon arrives.

Readers of Patrick Suskind's extraordinary novel Perfume will know the force of his imagination. The Pigeon displays again his ability to create a bizarrely convincing world which throws a sliver of demonic energy into the machinery of everyday life.

Patrick Suskind was born near Munich in 1949 and studied medieval and modern history at the University of Munich. His first play, The Double Bass, was written in 1980 and became an international success. His first novel, Perfume was also an internationally acclaimed bestseller and continues to be considered a classic. He is also the author of The Pigeon and Mr. Summer's Story, and a coauthor of the enormously successful German television series Kir Royal. Patrick Suskind lives and writes in Munich.