Pierre Lemaitre has worked for many years as a teacher of literature. His novels to date have earned him exceptional critical and public acclaim as a master of the crime novel and have won him the Prix du Premier Roman de Cognac 2006, the Prix du Meilleur Polar Francophone 2009, and the Prix du Polar Europeen du Point 2010. Alex is his first novel to be translated into English, and won the presitigious 2013 Crime Writers Association International Dagger Award. In 2013 Lemaitre was the recipient of the prestigious Prix Goncourt, the highest literary honor in France, for Au revoir la-haut.
Frank Wynne has translated works by Michel Houellebecq, Boualem Sansal, and many more. He won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2005 for his translation of Frederic Beigbeder's Windows on the World.
From the Hardcover edition.
"Alex had me gripped more than almost any book I can remember, with
one shout-out-aloud, knockout twist after another."
--Peter James, #1 NYT-bestselling author of the DS Roy Grace
novels
"An auspicious English-language debut . . . With quiet virtuosity,
Lemaitre moves the narrative through its various levels toward a
concluding act of retribution that is both ingeniously conceived
and immensely satisfying. Tricky, disturbing and ultimately
affecting, Alex is a welcome addition to the rising tide of
European crime fiction that has followed in the wake of Stieg
Larsson's death. Larsson's many readers should take this book to
their hearts and should find themselves waiting, with some degree
of impatience, for the next Verhoeven novel to appear."--Bill
Sheehan, The Washington Post Book World
"An eloquent thriller with a denouement that raises eyebrows as it
speeds the pulse."--Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
"An original and absorbing ability to leash incredulity in the name
of the fictional contract between author and reader... A police
procedural, a thriller against time, a race between hunted and
hunter, and a whydunnit, written from multiple points of view that
explore several apparently parallel stories which finally
meet."--CWA International Dagger Award Judges citation
"Before you can say Gone Girl, he discovers the crime is far from
random and Alex anything but an ordinary victim. This gritty
page-turner, Alex, is the first in a promised trilogy. Plus, s'il
vous plait."--Thom Geier, Entertainment Weekly
"Fascinating . . . filled with many twists and turns of plot along
with a huge surprise."--Connie Fletcher, Booklist
"Genuinely unpredictable in a way few suspense novels
are."--Charles Finch, USA Today
"Hypnotic . . . [A] remarkably determined and dangerous young
woman--a woman who admittedly makes Lisbeth Salander look like Mary
Poppins."--Raven Crime Reads
"Lemaitre's impressive American debut . . . unexpected plot twists
will keep readers turning the pages."--Publishers Weekly (Starred
and Boxed Review)
"Lemaitre's plot is laid out with mathematical precision: a
beautiful woman is kidnapped, stripped naked, thrown into a cage
and subjected to the systematic torture of a brutal captor . . .
Revenge narratives go all the way back to the Greeks, but it's the
vagina dentate component that sets a specimen like Alex apart, as
Lemaitre adapts Larsson's blueprint with moves of his
own."--Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review
"Relentlessly gripping . . . Various subtle variations of the crime
novel are handled with aplomb . . . By page 200 you may believe
that you're moving to a pulse-raising conclusion. But you will be
wrong; in some senses, the novel has only just begun."--Barry
Forshaw, Independent
"The winner of countless French crime-writing prizes, Lemaitre is
far too canny to join the ranks of thriller authors who merely
revel in disturbing details and gory crimes. Where another novel
would have finished, Alex is just beginning, and the book moves
from read-as-fast-as-you-can horror to an intricately plotted race
to a dark truth . . . There's humour here, and characters to return
to, but really Alex is about thrills. And as the novel barrels
triumphantly towards its unexpected but satisfying conclusion, it's
in this respect that it deliver."--Alison Flood, The Observer
"What begins as a search for a missing person soon becomes a
beguiling series of investigations linked only by Alex, a Parisian
version of Lisbeth Salander. Camille, volatile, brilliant and just
under 5 feet tall, is an equally riveting figure."--John Dugdale,
The Sunday Times
"Will keep you turning pages until well past your bedtime--with all
the lights on, of course."--Library Journal
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
