In this essential trilogy of novellas by the winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in L
iterature, French author Patrick Modiano reaches back in time, opening the corri
dors of memory and exploring the mysteries to be encountered there. Each novella
in the volume--"Afterimage," "Suspended Sentences," and "Flowers of Ruin"--repr
esents a sterling example of the author's originality and appeal, while Mark Pol
izzotti's superb English-language translations capture not only Modiano's distin
ctive narrative voice but also the matchless grace and spare beauty of his prose
.
Although originally published separately, Modiano's three novellas form a si
ngle, compelling whole, haunted by the same gauzy sense of place and characters.
Modiano draws on his own experiences, blended with the real or invented stories
of others, to present a dreamlike autobiography that is also the biography of a
place. Orphaned children, mysterious parents, forgotten friends, enigmatic stra
ngers--each appears in this three-part love song to a Paris that no longer exist
s.
Shadowed by the dark period of the Nazi Occupation, these novellas reveal M
odiano's fascination with the lost, obscure, or mysterious: a young person's con
fusion over adult behavior; the repercussions of a chance encounter; the search
for a missing father; the aftershock of a fatal affair. To read Modiano's trilog
y is to enter his world of uncertainties and the almost accidental way in which
people find their fates.
