Secret

Philippe Grimbert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 184627043X ISBN 13: 9781846270437

Publisher: Portobello Books Ltd, 2007

Based on the author's own family history and already a colossal best-seller in Europe, UK readers are now being let in on the story of a family haunted by the secrets of their past: an illicit love affair, a lost child, and a devastating betrayal dating back to the Second World War. This work is suitable for readers of Nemirovsky's "Suite francaise", Magda Szabo's "The Door", Schlink's "The Reader", Pierre Peju's "The Girl from the Chartreuse", Sandor Marai's "Embers" & fans of the film "Hidden". "The day after I turned fifteen, I finally discovered what I'd always known..." Growing up in post-war Paris the sickly only child of glamorous, athletic parents, the narrator invents for himself a make-believe brother - older, stronger, and more brilliant than he can ever be. It is only when the boy begins talking to an old family friend that he comes to realise that his imaginary sibling had a real predecessor: a half-brother whose death in the concentration camps is part of a buried family secret that he was intended never to unearth.

Review:

"Hypnotic, deeply moving... A gem of a novel, very highly recommended, that
will haunt the reader for a lifetime." -- Historical Novels Review

`A beautiful, if sad story, which I am still affected by. I read
it in one sitting - and wonder at how it moved me. A heart-wrenching story
and not to be missed...' -- French Magazine

`A slim little book - quick, but heavy with terror. Secret is a
marvel of a book, rendered in a fluent and flexible translation by Polly
McLean.' -- Financial Times

`A spare, minimally told story, which resonates with historical
and personal meaning.' -- Jewish Chronicle

`A spare, remarkable novel that reads as easily as a children's
tale, yet packs a grown-up punch.'
-- Independent

About the Author:

PHILIPPE GRIMBERT is a psychoanalyst. He is the author of several works of non-fiction and a novel, Paul's Little Dress. He lives in Paris.