The Gravedigger's Bread, Frédéric Dard
'Melancholy and atmospheric, with a twist worthy of Agatha Christie at her devious best… classic French noir' says The Guardian
Putting dead bodies in the ground for a living could give anyone ideas…
Blaise is out of work and down on his luck when a chance encounter with a beautiful blonde has him hooked. He’ll do anything to stay by her side, even if it means working for her husband, a funeral director. But as everyone knows, three’s a crowd.
Midday was striking just about everywhere in different tones. There was a lot of activity in the town’s main thorough-fare. It was awakening a little from its accustomed lethargy. On the opposite pavement I spotted a mean little black shopwhose door was decorated, if that’s the right word, with a wreath painted in moss-green. White letters announced “Funeral Director”.
Discover more by reading this novel translated by Melanie Florence and published by Pushkin Press.
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 littérature policière for The Executioner Weeps.
Melanie Florence is a French translator who has worked on dark tone novels, like Pascal Garnier's novels The A26 and Boxes, and The Poisoning Angel by Jean Teulé.
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