The Black Notebook - Brossura

International Praise for THE BLACK NOTEBOOK "There is a bit of noir in the new Modiano. Ex-convicts, missing bullets, a detective with a long memory . . . [But] in fact, Modiano has never before written a text as poetic as this apparent detective novel . . . with a rhythm at once carefully wrought and superbly fluid." -- Le Monde "Pure Modiano . . . As is often the case, it's the strange atmosphere between the lines that makes the magic of the text. A magic that works right from the first sentence: 'And yet, it was no dream.'" -- Figaro "Sublime . . . In these beautiful pages, what tears you up inside is when you sense, here and there, an alternate means of defying time . . . [A] magnificent novel that reawakens days long past, illuminating them with a dazzling light." -- Elle France

International Praise for THE BLACK NOTEBOOK "Modiano has never before written a text as poetic as this . . . with a rhythm at once carefully wrought and superbly fluid." —Le Monde "Pure Modiano . . . As is often the case, it's the strange atmosphere between the lines that makes the magic of the text. A magic that works right from the first sentence." —Figaro "Sublime . . . [A] magnificent novel that reawakens days long past, illuminating them with a dazzling light." —Elle France

"1960s Paris, a mysterious girl, a group of shady characters, danger ... Modiano's folklore is set out from the beginning ... and sheer magic follows once more." — Vogue "The prose — elliptical, muted, eloquent — falls on the reader like an enchantment ... No one is currently writing such beautiful tales of loss, melancholy, and remembrance." — Independent "Sublime ... [A] magnificent novel that reawakens days long past, illuminating them with a dazzling light." — Elle (France) "Never before has Modiano written a novel as lyrical as this ... Both carefully wrought and superbly fluid, sustained by pure poetry." — Le Monde "A compelling existential quasi-mystery ... A powerful examination of individual guilt and responsibility." — Toronto Star "Every bit as absorbing and beguiling as anything else Modiano has written ... Awash in a seductive atmosphere." — Electric Literature "A short but potent novel that's as elegant as Claude Rains and as sinister as Peter Lorre ... It's good that American publishers are catching up to Modiano's recent works ... An atmospheric, smoky, sepia-toned whodunit." — Kirkus Reviews "Classic Modiano sure to engage sophisticated readers, yet the noir sensibility and hint of crime could attract a larger audience." — Library Journal

“1960s Paris, a mysterious girl, a group of shady characters, danger . . . Modiano’s folklore is set out from the beginning . . . and sheer magic follows once more.” — Vogue

“The prose — elliptical, muted, eloquent — falls on the reader like an enchantment . . . No one is currently writing such beautiful tales of loss, melancholy, and remembrance.” — Independent

“Sublime . . . [A] magnificent novel that reawakens days long past, illuminating them with a dazzling light.” — Elle (France)

In the aftermath of Algeria’s war of independence, Paris was a city rife with suspicion and barely suppressed violence. Amid this tension, Jean, a young writer adrift, met and fell for Dannie, an enigmatic woman fleeing a troubled past. A half century later, with his old black notebook as a guide, he retraces this fateful period in his life, recounting how, through Dannie, he became mixed up with a group of unsavory characters connected by a shadowy crime. Soon Jean, too, was a person of interest to the detective pursuing their case — a detective who would prove instrumental in revealing Dannie’s darkest secret.

The Black Notebook bears all the hallmarks of this Nobel Prize–winning literary master’s unsettling and intensely atmospheric style. Once again, Patrick Modiano invites us into his unique world, a Paris infused with melancholy, uncertain danger, and the fading echoes of lost love.
 
“Never before has Modiano written a novel as lyrical as this . . . Both carefully wrought and superbly fluid, sustained by pure poetry.” — Le Monde

Patrick Modiano is the author of more than twenty novels, including several bestsellers. He has won the Prix Goncourt, the Grand Prix National des Lettres, and many other honors. In 2014 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. He lives in Paris.

Mark Polizzotti has translated more than forty books from the French, including Modiano’s Suspended Sentences. He is director of the publications program at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.