Birthday Party

New York Times Editors ChoiceA real-time study in crippling self-consciousness, the fragility of normalcy, and the reality of violence.The New York TimesBuried deep in rural France, little remains of the isolated hamlet of the Three Lone Girls, save a few houses and a curiously assembled quartet: Patrice Bergogne, inheritor of his familys farm; his wife, Marion; their daughter, Ida; and their neighbor, Christine, an artist. While Patrice plans a surprise for his wifes fortieth birthday, inexplicable events start to disrupt the hamlets quiet existence: anonymous, menacing letters, an unfamiliarcar rolling up the driveway. And as night falls, strangers stalk the houses, unleashinga nightmarish chain of events.Told in rhythmic, propulsive prose that weaves seamlessly from one consciousness to the next over the course of a day, Laurent MauvigniersThe Birthday Party is a deft unraveling of the stories we hide from others and from ourselves, a gripping tale of the violent irruptions of the past into the present, written by a major contemporary French writer.