An Unfortunate Encounter
Publisher
:
Feryane Livres en gros caractères
Parution date
:
2009
EAN
:
9782840119166
Number of pages
:
274
Description
***50,000 copies sold in France***
***Foreign rights sold: Bulgaria (Paradox), China (Shanghai 99), Holland (De Geus), Korea (DD’s World), Brazil (Record)***
As if Stefan Zweig had studied with Lacan.
—Le Nouvel Observateur
Philippe Grimbert recounts a story of passion and its excesses with a consummate flair for suspense.
—Elle
After the worldwide success of Philippe Grimbert’s previous novel, Un Secret (published in English as Memory by Simon & Schuster in 2008 and in 21 other editions worldwide), in his third novel he tells the story of two boyhood best friends, Loup and Mando, and of the promises and betrayals that define their bond over time. The story begins after Mando has died, when the full weight of years of guilt and love come rushing back to his most precious companion in life. In measured, haunted prose, Loup tells the story of their friendship, from their early childhood to the present, hinting all the while at the betrayals that he committed along the way and that foreshadow Mando’s tragic end.
First there was the gang in the park when they were little boys. Unable to stand up to bullies, Loup tells the gang that he doesn’t know Mando. Then there was his bowing out of going to sleep-away camp at the last minute and without telling his friend, who ended up going alone. Years later, when Loup becomes a disciple of a professor (who closely resembles Lacan), he abandons Mando in favor of lectures. He will fail his friend in other respects, but curiously, none of the failings are noted in Mando’s diaries, which Loup reads after his friend’s death. Loup resolves to put down for the record in this, his own book of memory, every way in which he let his friend down, perhaps to exonerate himself for never having lived up to his friend’s jealous love and expectations.
Author
Philippe Grimbert : Philippe Grimbert is a psychoanalyst and the author of three works of nonfiction, Psychanalyse de la chanson (Les Belles Lettres-Archambaud, 1996), Pas de fumée sans Freud (Armand Colin, 1999), and Chantons sous la psy (Hachette Littératures, 2002), and two previous works of fiction, La Petite robe de Paul (Grasset, 2001) and Un secret (Grasset, 2004; Simon & Schuster, 2008).
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