Three Days and a Life

By: Pierre Lemaitre, Frank Wynne - translator

Narrated by: Peter Noble

Antoine is twelve years old. His parents are divorced and he lives with his mother in Beauval, a small, backwater town surrounded by forests, where everyone knows everyone's business, and nothing much ever happens. But in the last days of 1999, a series of events unfolds, culminating in the shocking vanishing without trace of a young child. The adults of the town are at a loss to explain the disappearance, but for Antoine, it all begins with the violent death of his neighbour's dog. From that one brutal act, his fate and the fate of his neighbour's six year old son are bound forever.

In the years following Rémi's disappearance, Antoine wrestles with the role his actions played. As a seemingly inescapable net begins to tighten, breaking free from the suffocating environs of Beauval becomes a gnawing obsession. But how far does he have to run, and how long will it take before his past catches up with him again?

Translated from the French by Frank Wynne

©2017 Editions Albin Michel (P)2017 WF Howes Ltd

Critic reviews

"French crime maestro Pierre Lemaitre continues his upward movement in Three Days and a Life . . . This is literary crime writing of some distinction: a heady melange of Aldous Huxley and Robert Goddard."—The Guardian

"Thought-provoking and unsettling, Three Days And A Life is another work of genius from a master storyteller at the top of his game."—The Daily Express

"Taut character study and a vivid portrayal of an isolated community."—France Magazine

"Three Days and a Life was a fun, fast suspense novel that I very much enjoyed. I would definitely read more books by Pierre Lemaitre, who is known for getting into the minds of killers. That's exactly what he did with young Antoine, leaving the reader with a killer you couldn't help but care about."—Novel Visits

"Lemaitre has outdone himself. If you like great psychological novels, Three Days and a Life should be on your nightstand. Read it, savor, and read it again."
—Andrew Gulli, Strand Magazine

"A complex experiment in the social infrastructure of a small French town, right and wrong, and the rawness of the family unit . . . A great book that generates a lot of thought-provoking questions."
—Daily Republic

"Lemaitre is surely France's most elegant and imaginative crime writer."—The Times

"Three Days and a Life is excellent: A heartbreaking and masterful portrait of a man's life, marked by a childhood mistake."
—Crime by the Book

"Lemaitre may be the best current French writer of crime fiction."
—Financial Times

"No one is writing quirkier thrillers than Lemaitre, who gets inside the head of his unhinged protagonist with wicked delight while capturing the madness of the modern world. French favorite Lemaitre's novel, about a preteen on whom fortune smiles in the most devious ways after he accidentally kills a little boy, is a feverish, wickedly entertaining work."
—Kirkus Reviews