McDowell burst onto the French literary landscape in 2022 with the six volumes of “Blackwater”, which in a few months became a cult saga which led to the rediscovery of this author (1950-1999) who had disappeared all too soon…
The total print run of the six volumes of “Blackwater” has exceeded one million copies, helped by the covers, both embossed and hot-stamped, signed Pedro Oyarbide.
Look for the heroine
“Golden Needles”, “Calliope” and now “Katie” are presented with the same seductive aesthetic. They reflect an equally fertile imagination that alternates between formidably macabre passages (you are spared nothing when it comes to bloody murders), offbeat humor and the immense naivety, terribly sentimental, of Philo Drax.
She is the heroine of the novel, well, she is the one who is supposed to be, a young woman from New Egypt, a small village in New Jersey in an America where social inequalities between the rich (very rich) and poor (very poor) are exploding.
So kind, so naive, this Philo, always ready to sacrifice herself and forgive, that she quickly becomes annoying… We end up preferring Katie, the wicked, the cruel, who has received the gifts of clairvoyance and humor, as well as a solid art of the hammer which allows him to cut short many debates.
Between New Jersey, New York and Boston, the furious Katie and the tender Philo clash, and the reader, seduced by the funny cruelty of the former, is really no longer sure of wishing for the triumph of good. In any case, he’s enjoying it!
“Katie”, published by Monsieur Toussaint Louverture. €12.90.
