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\nThis book was passed to me because a good friend of mine found she just couldn\u2019t get into it, so my expectations weren\u2019t high. Also, I was reading it in translation from the original French, in English, so I expected the language and style to feel disjointed, and annoy me.<\/p>\n
The premise is that a well-known author who is struggling to create his second novel goes to spend time with his college tutor, Harry Quebert, another author. While he is there, the \u201cAffair\u201d explodes around him \u2013 the body of a girl who went missing 33 years ago is dug up in Harry\u2019s garden, making him the chief suspect.<\/p>\n
Our hero knows (in his heart) that Harry cannot have abducted and killed the girl, despite the mounting evidence that backs up the popular theory. It starts to look like this should be the material for his difficult second novel. Indeed, the implication is that the book in your hands is this second novel (which I found to be quite clever).<\/p>\n
The story doesn\u2019t move super-quickly, and there are quite a few threads to keep track of as you go through. The writing conveys the characters\u2019 motivation and feelings really well \u2013 you properly understand why they do the things they do. The twists and turns of the story are well hidden and well revealed when the time comes \u2013 it was rare that I felt \u201cthere\u2019s a twist coming\u201d which means to me that the plot was well constructed. On that same note, I felt like the threads were effectively brought together at the end \u2013 the ending was satisfying. Too often when I finish a novel, I think \u201cmeh, is that it?\u201d and the denouement felt a bit like a cop-out. Not so this time.<\/p>\n
Also, by the time I had read to the end (it\u2019s not a super-long novel, but for some reason I felt like I had been on a long journey at the end of it) I was surprised to be reminded that this was a translation. The language felt natural and well-constructed throughout \u2013 at no point did it feel clunky and there is a large amount of idiomatic speech in the story, which is most at risk when translating. So: really, really good job on the translation, Sam Taylor.<\/p>\n
An edited version of this review first appeared on The Book Gnome<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This book was passed to me because a good friend of mine found she just couldn\u2019t get into it, so my expectations weren\u2019t high. Also, I was reading it in translation from the original French, in English, so I expected … Continue reading