Bird in a Cage (Pushkin Vertigo) - Softcover

Frédéric Dard; David Bellos

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1782271996 ISBN 13: 9781782271994

Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo, 2016

Synopsis

'The French master of noir' Observer

It felt like the slipknot on a rope round my chest was being tightened without pity

Trouble is the last thing Albert needs. Travelling back to his childhood home on Christmas Eve to mourn his mother's death, he finds the loneliness and nostalgia of his Parisian quartier unbearable... Until, that evening, he encounters a beautiful, seemingly innocent woman at a brasserie, and his spirits are lifted.

Still, something about the woman disturbs him. Where is the father of her child? And what are those two red stains on her sleeve? When she invites him back to her apartment, Albert thinks he's in luck. But a monstrous scene awaits them, and he finds himself lured into the darkness against his better judgment.

Unravelling like a paranoid nightmare, Bird in a Cage melds existentialist drama with thrilling noir to tell the story of a man trapped in a prison of his own making.

'Disturbing from the outset with strong echoes of Dard's hero Simenon' Sunday Times Crime Club, star pick

'Exceedingly clever... you can only squirm more enjoyably into your seat as you read on' Bookbag, 5 stars

'If you're a fan of Film Noir, you'll love Bird in a Cage...if all the novels in the Vertigo series are this good, I predict I'll be needing more bookshelves.' Randall Writes

The Wicked Go to Hell, Crush and The Executioner Weeps are forthcoming from Pushkin Vertigo.

About this title

Review:

'Melancholy and atmospheric, with a twist worthy of Agatha Christie at her devious best, this brief tale has the hallmark of classic French noir' -- Guardian

'With their tight plots, the stories are particularly cinematic, and film-makers, are already showing interest' -- Observer

'Hugely atmospheric' -- The Times

'Alongside the Maigret novels of Georges Simenon there is a rich vein of period French crime still to be tapped. Frédéric Dard is a case in point' -- Daily Mail

'Disturbing from the outset with strong echoes of Dard's hero Simenon' -- Sunday Times Crime Club

'This short, sly novel of the night has more than enough sibstance and mystery to keep readers awake and engrossed' -- The National

'It's exceedingly clever - when surprising things happen they slap you in the face for being so obvious, so necessary and so vital yet so surprising at the same time, and you can only squirm more enjoyably into your seat as you read on' -- Bookbag, 5 stars

'It is a tribute to the quality of the writing that Dard can contain so much tension, surprise and mystery in so few words' -- Crime Review

'Imbued with a tantalising mix of Patricia Highsmith and Aldred Hitchcock' -- Raven Crime Reads

'It's a short, sharp story featuring a handful of brilliantly portrayed characters, and it is structured as intriguingly and cunningly as an Escher drawing' -- Thriller Books Journal

'A slick novella... the ending is deliciously ambiguous... a triumph' -- The Worm Hole

'It's a brilliant book... this was a real discovery and treat all rolled into one' -- Desperate Reader

'If you're a fan of Film Noir, you'll love Bird in a Cage... if all the novels in the Vertigo series are this good, I predict I'll be needing more bookshelves' -- Randall Writes

'The literary descendant of Simenon and Celine' -- Le Figaro

'No question: for me, he was the greatest' -- Philippe Geluck

'His language is cutting, his point-of-view original and his verdict uncompromising... One of the few twentieth-century authors to win both critical acclaim and great popularity' -- Solidarite Militaire

'France's most popular post-war author' --L'Express

'A typically tense and yearning tale... One eagerly awaits forthcoming translations to see whether he can do the trick over again' --Wall Street Journal

About the Author:

Frédéric Dard (1921-2000) was one of the best known and loved French crime writers of the twentieth century. Enormously prolific, he wrote more than three hundred thrillers, suspense stories, plays and screenplays, under a variety of noms de plume, throughout his long and illustrious career, which also saw him win the 1957 Grand prix de litterature policiere for The Executioner Weeps, forthcoming from Pushkin Vertigo.

David Bellos is an English translator and biographer. His translations include several of Georges Simenon's Maigret novels, as well as Paul Fournel's Dear Reader, published by Pushkin Press. He has also written biographies of Perec, Jacques Tati and Romain Gary and an introduction to translation, Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1782271996
• ISBN 13: 9781782271994
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128