Twenty Minutes of Silence
Brief Description
In an opulent villa near the English Channel lives a family. The father has a safe, a spanner, a candle, and a maid called Rose. The son has a swing, a croquet set, a raincoat, a car. Some members of the family read crime novels to...
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September 2026
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Twenty Minutes of Silence
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Darkly comedic and wonderfully strange, Twenty Minutes of Silence is a truly original take on the crime genre, inspired by a true story.
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Description
In an opulent villa near the English Channel lives a family. The father has a safe, a spanner, a candle, and a maid called Rose. The son has a swing, a croquet set, a raincoat, a car. Some members of the family read crime novels to fall asleep (the father), some instead of sleeping (the son), and some to ease the loneliness of an unhappy marriage (the mother).
Their equilibrium is shattered in the wake of a shocking incident and the twenty minutes of silence that follow. Darkly comedic and wonderfully strange, Twenty Minutes of Silence is a truly original take on the crime genre, inspired by a true story. Here, Hélène Bessette builds a world of intrigue, a world punctured by startling disruptions and unexpected shifts, and in doing so destroys and remakes the crime novel, creating a form wholly new.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781804272152
Publisher: Fitzcarraldo Editions
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 18 June 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Fitzcarraldo Editions
Contributors:
- Introduction by Kathryn Scanlan
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 121.0mm
Height: 197.0mm
Weight: 0g
Pages: 180
About the Author
Hélène Bessette (1918-2000) published thirteen novels with Gallimard between 1953 and 1973, won the Cazes prize in 1954 and was twice in the running for the Goncourt prize and the Médicis prize.
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