As a suspenseful thriller — which is how this book is being advertised — it’s a letdown. There was no suspense, no mystery, and it was slow. However, if it had been marketed as fiction or literary fiction, I probably would have liked it more.
Pax, a wannabe actor, is rushing to a meeting for what he believes will be his big break in the industry after so many years, when he hears a scream and some noise from the apartment above him. He chooses to ignore it in favor of his audition, only later to discover that a young university student was beaten and left for dead. By a twist of fate, Pax ends up in love with the boy’s mother, and has to come to terms with how his actions affected all of them.
This is advertised as a bestseller in France, so perhaps the slow, plodding nature of the story has something to do with the translation. But, for such a short book, it took me way too long to get through it.
Some of it was compelling — a middle age man coming to terms with being a failure both in his industry and as a human, a young man trying to come to terms with his new normal after being the victim of a random crime, the mother of that child blaming herself for everything and trying to dig herself out of the hole of depression. And there is an underlying commentary on living in a society — especially a large, busy city like Paris — where one must balance the desire for an anonymous and solitary life against what one owes to the other members of society.
As I said earlier, while interesting as literary fiction, I was really in the mood for a true thriller when I picked up this book.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and Hodder Paperbacks in exchange for my honest review. It has not influenced my opinion.