I'm continuing my “Anywhere but Sweden” noir recommendations this week with a trip to France.
Pascal Garnier, who died in 2010, wrote his deliciously dark noir from his perch in a mountainous town in the mountains of Ardeche, in southeast France. The geography there is rich with verdant forests and small, insular villages. Like the Icelandic novels I recommended last week, you can feel the influence of the landscape on the sensibility of the writing.
Garnier’s novels feature hitmen, drifters and people who leave familiar environments for new surroundings, often sparking conflict.
In “How’s the Pain," an aging hitman is ready to call it quits when he hires a young driver for one last job. Philosophical, humorous and tightly-told, the novel is unpredictable and surprisingly compassionate.
Garnier’s daughter, Eve, says her late father was charismatic — the kind of guy at a party who would be surrounded by people, eager to impress. “People were drawn to him, “ she said. “He got people to talk about themselves… But he didn’t tell them about himself.”
The power of that quiet observation makes this noir memorable and original.
German author Takis Wurger's debut novel, a thriller about a secret society at Cambridge University, also tackles hot-button issues of privilege and toxic masculinity. It's now out in English. More
Who killed the Bordens more than 100 years ago remains unsolved. Like a lawyer, author Cara Robertson lays the facts and evidence before us, occasionally pointing towards the biases of the day. More
"The Lady from the Black Lagoon" tells the story of Milicent Patrick, who designed the Creature's monster suit. "Giraffes on Horseback Salad" was a Marx Brothers script scenario written by Salvador Dali. More
Henry Eliot's book takes twists and turns through history, philosophy, myth and pop culture. He says mazes are just like life — except that at the end you can turn around and do it all over again. More
Salvatore Scibona's new novel is a generational saga, an epic of Vietnam and other places rendered in language that makes even simple things sound mythic. But first, a boy is abandoned at an airport. More
Andrew Ridker's sharp, compassionate first novel follows a family of flawed but sympathetic bumblers whose efforts to do good more often end up causing harm — to themselves and others. More
Bookseller Vicki Burger recommends a novel that's "just lovely, about how we look back on our lives ... and the people who have been important to us either for good or bad." More
Alex Kotlowitz's new book amplifies the words of those who have witnessed tragedy and makes their experiences available to readers — a chronicle that is painful but also necessary. More
