Pascal Garnier

Cuando un viejo gruñon, llamado Duflo, se come un trozo de tarta azul que el pequeño Benguigui le regala, nadie lo reconoce: ni su vecina, ni el vigilante del parque, ni la tendera. Ni siquiera él mi

En una habitación de hotel de una ciudad balneario del sur de Francia, un hombre enfermo y cansado se ahorca ayudado por un joven. Seis días antes, Simon Marechall conoce en un parque a Bernard, que aun no tiene veintidos años y esta convaleciente de un accidente laboral. Le ofrece trabajo como chofer e inician juntos un viaje repleto de incidencias extrañas, pasajeros accidentales y destinos peligrosos. La verdadera profesion de Simon asesino a sueldo y el autentico motivo del viaje sobrecogen al joven Bernard, pero este parece tener una singular facultad para adaptarse a las situaciones mas absurdas, un don innato para encajar los golpes. Quiza el contacto con el crimen y el asesinato no le hagan perder la inocencia.

Aquesta novel·la curta narra les aventures divertides i fascinants de Lolette, una nena amb poders màgics i Fèlix, un xiquet de color més alt que un pi.

Gabriel is a stranger in a small Breton town. Nobody knows where he came from or why hes here. Yet his small acts of kindness, and exceptional cooking, quickly earn him acceptance from the locals.His new friends grow fond of Gabriel, who seems as reserved and benign as the toy panda he wins at the funfair.But unlike Gabriel, the fluffy toy is not haunted by his past....

Recently widowed grandmother Éliette is returning to her home in the mountains when her micro-car breaks down. A stranger comes to her aid on foot. Éliette offers him a lift, glad of the interruption to her humdrum routine.That night, her neighbours son is killed in a road accident. Could the tragedy be linked to the arrival of her good Samaritan?

Natures a funny old thing, it does whatever it pleases.Given the choice, Martial would not have moved to Les Conviviales. But Odette loved the idea of a brand-new retirement village in the south of France. So that was that. At first it feels like a terrible mistake: theyre the only residents and its raining non-stop. Then three neighbours arrive, the sun comes out, and life becomes far more interesting and agreeable. Until, that is, some travellers set up camp just outside their gated community . . .

Fabien and Sylvie had both known their marriage was no longer working. And yet when Sylvie is involved in a fatal car accident, her husband is stunned to discover that she had a lover who died alongside her.With thoughts of revenge on his mind, Fabien decides to find out about the lovers widow, Martine, first by stalking her, then by breaking into her home.He really needs to get Martine on her own. But she never goes anywhere without her formidable best friend, Madeleine...

Written over a 15-year period from the mid 90s, Garniers short novels weave a profound and darkly comic tapestry of human experience. Volume 3 includes The Eskimo Solution, which combines the story of a struggling writer with excerpts of the crime novel hes writing, which will spill over into his own life; Low Heights, in which a cantankerous retiree falls for his nurse and finds himself confronted with a man claiming to be his long-lost son ... but the family reunion is threatened by the vultures circling above; and Too Close to the Edge, the tale of a quiet retirement in the foothills of the Alps turned upside down.

Its a few days before Christmas in Versailles. Olivier has come to bury his mother, but the impending holidays and icy conditions have delayed the funeral.While trapped in limbo at his mothers flat, a chance encounter brings Olivier back in touch with childhood friend Jeanne and her blind brother, Rodolphe.Rodolphe suggests they have dinner together, along with a homeless man hes taken in. As the wine flows, dark secrets are spilled, and theres more than just hangovers to deal with the next morning...

The future is on its way to Picardy with the construction of a huge motorway. But nearby is a house where nothing has changed since 1945. Traumatised by events that year, Yolande hasnt left her home since. And life has not been kinder to Bernard, her brother, who is now in the final months of a terminal illness.Realizing that he has so little time left, Bernards gloom suddenly lifts. With no longer anything to lose, he becomes reckless - and murderous...

Written over a 15-year period from the mid 90s, Garniers short novels feature a recurring set of themes, characters and settings, and reading them side by side allows the authors profound and darkly comic tapestry of human experience to be fully appreciated. Volume 1 includes The A26, in which a new Picardy motorway brings modernity close to a flat in which a brother and sister live together, haunted by terminal illness and the events of 1945; Hows the Pain?, the tale of an ageing pest exterminator taking on one last job on the French Riviera; and The Panda Theory, in which a stranger, Gabriel, arrives in a Breton town and befriends the locals ... but is he as angelic as he seems?

A trippy, sleazy, sly and classy read A. L. KennedyMarc dreams of going somewhere far, far away - but hell start by taking his cat and his grown-up daughter, Anne, to an out-of-season resort on the Channel. Reluctant to go home, the curious threesome head south for Agen, whose main claim to fame is its prunes. As their impromptu road trip takes ever stranger turns, the trail of destruction - and mysterious disappearances - mounts up in their wake.Shocking, hilarious and poignant, this final book from Pascal Garnier, published shortly before his death, is the author on top form.

Booker-winner John Banville has long heralded Pascal Garnier as the true heir to Simenon. Now, with a dozen of Garniers noirs available in English, Banville introduces a new edition of one of Garniers masterworks as part of a collection of contemporary and classic jewels of French literature.Hows the Pain? sees ageing pest exterminator Simon take on one last job on the Riveira, aided by young chauffeur Bernard. As the unlikely pair set off on their journey, Bernard soon finds that Simons definition of vermin is broader than hed expected... Veering from the hilarious to the horrific, this offbeat story from master stylist Pascal Garnier is at heart an affecting study of human frailty.

Happiness for those unused to it is like food for the starving - a little too much can be fatal.Writer Jeff Colombier is not accustomed to success. Twice divorced with a grown-up son he barely sees, he drinks too much and his books dont sell. Then he wins a big literary prize and his life changes for ever. Overwhelmed by his newfound wealth and happiness, he feels the need to escape and recapture his lost youth, taking his son, Damien, with him. And if shady characters lead them down ever more dangerous paths . . . well, cest la vie.

A crime writer uses the modest advance on his latest novel to rent a house on the Normandy coast. There should be little to distract him from his work besides walks on the windswept beach, but as he begins to tell the tale of forty-something Louis - who, after dispatching his own mother, goes on to relieve others of their burdensome elderly relations - events in his own life begin to overlap with the work of his imagination.