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Moon in a Dead Eye: Shocking, hilarious and poignant noir

Moon in a Dead Eye: Shocking, hilarious and poignant noir

by Pascal Garnier

Translated by Emily Boyce

Published by: Gallic Books Limited

Imprint: Gallic Books

128 Pages, 5.00 x 7.00 in

Paperback
9781908313492
Published: August 2014

$14.95

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Praise

In Moon in a Dead Eye, from the 'slyly funny' [Sunday Times] Pascal Garnier, the inhabitants of a new retirement village find their territory encroached upon when a group of travellers sets up camp on the outskirts.

'The final descent into violence is worthy of J G Ballard' The Independent

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: they're the only residents and it's raining non-stop. Then three neighbours arrive, the sun comes out, and life becomes far more interesting and agreeable. Until, that is, some gypsies set up camp just outside their gated community…

Pascal Garnier, who died in March 2010, was a talented novelist, short story writer, children’s author and painter. From his home in the mountains of the Ardèche, he wrote fiction in a noir palette with a cast of characters drawn from ordinary provincial life. Though his writing is often very dark in tone, it sparkles with quirkily beautiful imagery and dry wit. Garnier’s work has been likened to the great thriller writer, Georges Simenon.

Melanie Florence teaches at the University of Oxford and translates from the French.

Emily Boyce is a translator and editor. She was shortlisted for the French Book Office New Talent in Translation Award in 2008, the French-American Translation Prize in 2016, and the Scott Moncrieff Prize in 2021. She lives in London.

'Blood-boltered and agonizingly hilarious' John Banville, New York Review of Books

'Garnier plunges you into a bizarre, overheated world, seething death, writing, fictions and philosophy. He's a trippy, sleazy, sly and classy read' A. L. Kennedy

'Tense, strange, disconcerting and slyly funny, this is – for such a short book – richly satisfying. The characters, all original and convincing, are deftly realised, and the story exerts a compelling grip... His mordant literary edge makes these succinct novels stimulating and rewarding. We can only hope that more appear soon' Sunday Times

'The final descent into violence is worthy of J G Ballard' (4 stars) The Independent

'A master of the surreal noir thriller – Luis Buñuel meets Georges Simenon' TLS

'A mixture of Albert Camus and JG Ballard' Financial Times

'Fuses dark comedy and existential despair … a takedown of the haughty residents of an exclusive retirement community. All that’s needed is a caravan of Gypsies to turn these smug provincials into savage beasts' Marilyn Stasio, New York Times

'Garnier (1949–2010) packs humor, insights into aging, and a darkly pessimistic assessment of mankind into this slender crime novel' Publishers Weekly

'Arch and lyrical … a funny and outlandish story' Crime Thriller Fella

Moon in a Dead Eye: Shocking, hilarious and poignant noir

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