About the Book
This #1 internationally bestselling thriller, an ingenious book within a book, is about the disappearance of a fifteen-year-old New Hampshire girl and, thirty years later, a young American writer's determination to clear his mentor's name--and find the inspiration for his next bestseller.
August 30, 1975. This is the day fifteen-year-old Nola Kellergan is glimpsed fleeing through the woods before she disappears--the day Somerset, New Hampshire, loses its innocence.
Thirty-three years later, Marcus Goldman, a successful young novelist, visits Somerset to see his mentor, Harry Quebert, one of America's most respected writers, and to find a cure for his writer's block as his publisher's deadline looms. But Marcus' plans are violently upended when Harry is suddenly and sensationally implicated in the cold-case murder of Nola Kellergan--whom, he admits, he had an affair with. As the national media convicts Harry, Marcus launches his own investigation, following a trail of clues through his mentor's books, the backwoods and isolated beaches of New Hampshire, and the hidden history of Somerset's citizens and the man they hold most dear. To save Harry, his writing career, and eventually even himself, Marcus must answer three questions, all of which are mysteriously connected: Who killed Nola Kellergan? What happened one misty morning in Somerset in the summer of 1975? And how do you write a successful and true novel?
A global phenomenon, with rights sold in more than thirty countries, The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair is a fast-paced, tightly plotted, cinematic literary thriller and an ingenious book within a book by a dazzling young writer.
Review :
"A book within a book, a crime novel, a love story. Extraordinary."
-- "Cosmopolitan (Germany)"
"A funny, intelligent, breathtaking book within a book...There is a real joy in discovering this extraordinary novel."
-- "Lire"
"A master stroke...A crime novel with not one plot line but many, full of shifting rhythms, changes of course, and multiple layers that, like a Russian doll, slot together beautifully...In maestro form, Dicker alternates periods and genres (police reports, interviews, excerpts from novels) and explores America in all its excesses--media, literary, religious--all the while questioning the role of the literary writer."
-- "L'Express"
"A novel with all the ingredients of a global bestseller."
-- "Die Zeit (Hamburg)"
"After The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair, the contemporary novel will no longer be the same. Verdict: summa cum laude...A beautiful novel."
-- "Corriere della Sera (Milan)"
"An ambitious, multilayered novel of suspense...This tale of fame, friendship, loyalty, and fiction versus reality moves at warp speed."
-- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)"
"Dizzying, like the best American thrillers...Rich in subplots and twists, moving backwards and forwards in time, containing books within books."
-- "Le Figaro (Paris)"
"If you dip your toes into this major novel, you're finished: you won't be able to keep from sprinting through to the last page. You will be manipulated, thrown off course, flabbergasted, and amazed by the many twists and turns, red herrings and sudden changes of direction in this exuberant story."
-- "Le Journal du Dimanche (Paris)"
"Masterful...The great thriller that everyone has been waiting for since the Millennium trilogy of Stieg Larsson."
-- "El Cultural"
"Narrative talent is about making a work of art out of life. Dicker has got it."
-- "Vanity Fair (Italy)"
"Never have I felt so compelled to recommend a book this highly...I was mesmerized and fascinated long after I had finished reading...It has echoes of Twin Peaks and Death on the Staircase, John Grisham, Psycho, The Exorcist, and The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving."
-- "La Vanguardia (Barcelona)"
"The cleverest, creepiest book you'll read this year...The most talked-about French novel of the decade...Breathtakingly plotted...Addictively fast...It's like Twin Peaks meets Atonement meets In Cold Blood...The New England setting [is] immersively convincing...Very few foreign-language novels make big waves in Anglophone countries, but this one seems genuinely likely to buck the trend."
-- "Telegraph (London)"
"The success story of the literary season...An American thriller reminiscent of the best work of Truman Capote."
-- "Paris Match"
"This book will be celebrated and studied by future writers. It is a model thriller."
-- "El Periódico de Catalunya (Barcelona)"
"This sprawling, likable whodunit [is] obvious ballast for the summer's beach totes...Dicker keeps the prose simple and the pace snappy in a plot that winds up with more twists than a Twizzler."
-- "Kirkus Reviews"
