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An intimate, haunting novel about the invisible bonds that survive betrayal and death.
Châteauvieux-sur-l’Aubrac, deep winter. The celebrated Dutch writer Thomas Helder has died at just forty-six. After the funeral, his family and closest friends gather at the remote country house where he spent his childhood summers and where, in the final days of his illness, he chose to return. Among them is Margaux Chanet, Thomas’s oldest friend: a renowned French architect who vanished years earlier without explanation, abandoning the people who loved her most.
Over the course of a long snowy night, as wine flows and memories surface, old wounds reopen and buried truths begin to emerge. At the center of the gathering is an extraordinary conversation between Margaux and Jorg, Thomas’s enigmatic brother, who tells her of a mysterious cabin on the northern coast of the Netherlands. A place where grief seems to dissolve the boundaries between past and present, living and dead.
Moving between Amsterdam and the windswept plateaus of the Aubrac, Thomas Helder is a fervent examination of mourning, memory, and the lives we carry within us long after loss—one that reaffirms Muriel Barbery as a singular voice in European literature.
Praise for Thomas Helder
“A book full of sensations, reflection, and great beauty.”—RTL
“Barbery dissects, through a group of characters, friendship as a conversation that continues beyond time and borders.”—Harper's Bazaar
“Captivating from beginning to end.”—Marie France
“An emotional meditation on what separates and unites the living and the dead, love and friendship, innocence and corruption, the magic of the places we inhabit.”—Madame Figaro
“Muriel Barbery seeks and finds harmony.”—Le Monde des Livres
Praise for Muriel Barbery
“This story, like all great tales, will break your heart, but it will also make you realize—or remember—that sometimes the pain is worth it.”—Chicago Sun-Times
“If Muriel Barbery’s sentences were stones, her books would be cathedrals. Her voice is a song, a rising prayer. She speaks the language of the stars.”—Le Figaro Littéraire
“A eulogy to careful observation and quiet patience.”—La Croix
“Magical, infused with poetry… A touching story about life’s trials, encounters, and friendships.”—Mademoiselle Lit
“The writing unfolds like the stroke of a Japanese calligrapher: the significance of each touch gives vividness to the story while retaining the breadth of poetry.”—Sud Ouest
“A sober, poetic, and delicate diptych.”—Le Journal du Dimanche
“An extremely gentle, extremely poetic book. Sad, luminous, and dark too . . . a marvel.”—France Info
“Gently satirical, exceptionally winning and inevitably bittersweet.”—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post
“A high-wire performance.”—Los Angeles Times
“Both [of the book’s protagonists] create eloquent little essays on time, beauty and the meaning of life, Renée with erudition and Paloma with adolescent brio.” —The New York Times
“Astute social satire and abstruse German philosophy are rarely found together, but here they are in this ingenious work of fiction.” —The Boston Globe
“Barbery’s sly wit, which bestows lightness on the most ponderous cogitations, keeps her tale aloft.” —The New Yorker
“A beautiful story with a large cast of fascinating, complicated characters whose behavior is delightfully unpredictable.” —The Wall Street Journal
“This fable of love, friendship and the beauty of art not only gives innocence a voice, but also shows what a powerful novel can do: transport, educate and, ultimately, console.” —The Toronto Star
“Hedgehog is really an international book, focused as it is on universal topics of childhood, philosophy, love, and art.” —The Daily Beast
“By turns very funny (particularly in Paloma’s sections) and heartbreaking, Barbery never allows either of her dour narrators to get too cerebral or too sentimental. Her simple plot and sudden denouement add up to a great deal more than the sum of their parts.” —Publishers Weekly
“An elegant, light-spirited and very European adult fable.” —Kirkus Reviews