Imprint
- MacLehose Press
- Maclehose Press
Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Fiction in translation
A powerful and disturbing novel by the author of Three Strong Women and The Cheffe
*A GUARDIAN BEST TRANSLATED NOVEL OF 2023*
*A NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS 2023 FINALIST*
*A WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS BEST TRANSLATED BOOK OF 2023*
"A powerful story of mothers and daughters" Guardian
"A haunting, mysterious tour de force" Lucy Scholes, Prospect
"I was hypnotised from the first word to the last" Tess Gunty, author of The Rabbit Hutch
"[A] fiercely intelligent story: everyone is complex and full of shadows, as life is" Mariana Enriquez, author of The Dangers of Smoking in Bed
When Gilles Principaux walks into Maitre Susane's legal practice seeking representation for his wife, his presence triggers memories from her childhood she had long buried. Gilles' wife is charged with drowning their three children, a case that will be splashed across the news media in Bordeaux and beyond. So why has he entrusted his wife's fate to her small, unremarkable practice?
Maitre Susane can't shake the feeling that she has met him before, that something happened between them one afternoon when she was barely ten and he was fourteen, something sinister she has never known how to remember. But Gilles seems so at ease her in presence that Maitre Susane begins to believe that her memory must be playing tricks on her.
Haunted by a past that both escapes and consumes her, Maitre Susane fights to hold on to her memory, her identity and the chance she's been given to avenge herself.
Translated from the French by Jordan Stump.
More books by Marie NDiaye
Praise for Vengeance is Mine
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"A novel of concentric haunting, summoning ghosts into the room with prose that shimmers, cuts, and sings. Unflinching and restrained, Vengeance is Mine sails its readers into uncharted psychological waters. I was hypnotised from the first word to the last."
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"In this disquieting, quietly beautiful novel, Marie NDiaye writes about an unimaginable crime placing around it a world of confusion, trauma, and memories of a past that cannot be trusted. There's more questions than answers in this fiercely intelligent story: everyone is complex and full of shadows, as life is."
Marie NDiaye
Marie NDiaye was born in France in 1967. She published her first novel at seventeen, and has won the Prix Femina (Rosie Carpe in 2001) and the Prix Goncourt (Three Strong Women, 2009). Her play "Papa Doit Manger" has been taken into the repertoire of the ComA die FranA aise. Her novel Ladivine (translated by Jordan Stump) was longlisted for the Booker International Prize in 2016, and in 2020 she was awarded the Prix Marguerite Yourcenar for her entire body of work. She lives in Paris.
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