Moon in a Dead Eye: Shocking, hilarious and poignant noir

by Pascal Garnier, Emily Boyce (Translator)

Overview

In Moon in a Dead Eye, from the 'slyly funny' [Sunday Times] Pascal Garnier, the inhabitants of a new retirement village find their territory encroached upon when a group of travellers sets up camp on the outskirts.

'The final descent into violence is worthy of J G Ballard' The Independent 

Given the choice, Martial would not have moved to Les Conviviales. But Odette loved the idea of a brand-new retirement village in the south of France. So that was that. At first it feels like a terrible mistake: they're the only residents and it's raining non-stop. Then three neighbours arrive, the sun comes out, and life becomes far more interesting and agreeable. Until, that is, some gypsies set up camp just outside their gated community…

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781908313492
Publisher:	Gallic Books Limited
Publication date:	08/12/2014
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Pascal Garnier, who died in March 2010, was a talented novelist, short story writer, children’s author and painter. From his home in the mountains of the Ardèche, he wrote fiction in a noir palette with a cast of characters drawn from ordinary provincial life. Though his writing is often very dark in tone, it sparkles with quirkily beautiful imagery and dry wit. Garnier’s work has been likened to the great thriller writer, Georges Simenon.

Emily Boyce is a translator and editor. She was shortlisted for the French Book Office New Talent in Translation Award in 2008, the French-American Translation Prize in 2016, and the Scott Moncrieff Prize in 2021. She lives in London.  

Editorial Reviews

No one writes noir like the French. One eloquent voice in that bleak genre belongs to Pascal Garnier, who fuses dark comedy and existential despair…Moon in a Dead Eye…[is] written in the absurdist manner of Jean Anouilh…

The New York Times Book Review - Marilyn Stasio

06/23/2014
Garnier (1949–2010) packs humor, insights into aging, and a darkly pessimistic assessment of mankind into this slender crime novel, his third to be published in the U.S. this year (after How’s the Pain? and The Panda Theory). Martial and Odette Sudre are the first residents to occupy a home in the new, extravagantly advertised retirement community Les Conviviales in southern France. Months go by before a second couple, Maxime and Marlène Node, arrive, and they are followed by Léa, a single woman. The only staff consists of gruff gardener/watchman Gérard Flesh and social director Nadine Touchard. The foibles and secrets of the mismatched residents and staff members begin to reveal themselves almost immediately, and the (mis)perceived threat posed by the arrival of nearby gypsy caravans turns folly into disaster. Garnier’s sly, cynical take on life after retirement will strike a chord with readers of every age. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

'Blood-boltered and agonizingly hilarious' John Banville, New York Review of Books 

'Garnier plunges you into a bizarre, overheated world, seething death, writing, fictions and philosophy. He's a trippy, sleazy, sly and classy read' A. L. Kennedy 

'Tense, strange, disconcerting and slyly funny, this is – for such a short book – richly satisfying. The characters, all original and convincing, are deftly ­realised, and the story exerts a compelling grip... His mordant literary edge makes these succinct novels stimulating and rewarding. We can only hope that more appear soon' Sunday Times 

'The final descent into violence is worthy of J G Ballard' (4 stars) The Independent 

'A master of the surreal noir thriller – Luis Buñuel meets Georges Simenon' TLS 

'A mixture of Albert Camus and JG Ballard' Financial Times 

'Fuses dark comedy and existential despair … a takedown of the haughty residents of an exclusive retirement community. All that’s needed is a caravan of Gypsies to turn these smug provincials into savage beasts' Marilyn Stasio, New York Times 

'Garnier (1949–2010) packs humor, insights into aging, and a darkly pessimistic assessment of mankind into this slender crime novel' Publishers Weekly 

'Arch and lyrical …  a funny and outlandish story' Crime Thriller Fella

From the Publisher