Scene of the Crime

A haunting novella that probes the enigmas of time and memory, by Nobel Prize-winning author Patrick Modiano

Nobel Prize-winning author Patrick Modiano revisits the places and events in his acclaimed semi-autobiographical novella Suspended Sentences: the season in his childhood during which he shared a home with sinister surrogate parents, the mysterious events that took place there, and an infamous heist that was never solved.

In Scene of the Crime, Modiano conjures the aftermath of those years. Jean Bosmans, now in his early twenties, becomes aware of a set of disturbing coincidences involving an elusive woman, his childhood home, and a host of disquieting characters who seem inordinately interested in his past, for reasons he can’t fathom. As he journeys into the echoes of memory, past and present become increasingly intertwined, forming a web spanning half a century.

With the taut suspense of a detective novel, this book slowly peels away layers of time and forgetfulness to reveal the haunting, threatening, ultimately tragic legacies of what we think we know about our lives.