Hygiène de l'assassin

Prétextat Tach, Nobel laureate in literature, has only two months left to live. Journalists from around the world are seeking interviews with the writer, who has been reclusive for years due to his misanthropy. Only four will meet him, and he will play with them according to a dialectic where bad faith and logic collide. The fifth will stand up to him, and he will get caught up in the game. If this novel is almost entirely in dialogue, it is because no form is as akin to torture. The exchanges, from simple interviews, gradually turn into interrogations, into a merciless duel in which a different man emerges, prey to the darkest secrets. A first novel of extraordinary intensity, in which Amélie Nothomb, 25 years old, wields cruelty, cynicism and ambiguity with accomplished talent.