Has Joël Dicker wrote “The novel by Marceau Miller”?

A thriller that goes very close to our homeon the French shore of Lake Geneva, seems to be promised to an international future. La Martinière publishing house announces that it has already sold in ten countries the translation rights of the “Roman de Marceau Miller” published last week. Not to mention a strong interest in France for the pocket version and an audiovisual adaptation project.

Originality of the text, He appeared under pseudonymunder the name of Marceau Miller. The same as that of the writer who died in the prologue, leaving a mysterious manuscript lighting his life. On the cover, to avoid a repetition, instead of the author’s name burst out the adjectives “breathless. Dizzy. Addictive. ” Difficult to prove this program wrong, because this page turner Don’t let go.

At the Frankfurt Book Fair in mid-October, the craze was immediate. “In this market that has become very prudent, it is very rare to sell fiction before publication,” explains “Book Hebdo” Marleen Seegers, who negotiates the rights of sale for the Parisian house.

The mystery on the identity of the author seems to be there for many. But who hides behind Marceau Miller? On the site marceaumiller.comthe author details the assumptions made to his publisher: “The most surprising names have circulated: those of actors, great writers that I respect infinitely, women or men …” Some believe they recognize Joël Dicker: Effective writing, Heady rhythm, back and forth in temporality, characters who hide gray areas, not counting the geography of the intrigue, a stone’s throw from Switzerland, with even a trip to recover a manuscript in the trunk of a bank bank Switzerland, in Geneva. City in which the novelist lives and decor of his latest novel, “A wild animal”.

False track?

According to the indices distilled by the publisher, however, the track leads elsewhere: “Probably born in 1978, Marceau Miller would be a screenwriter for television and writer. It is the first time that he has written a novel under this name. He lives in France. ” Now Dicker The Genevan was born in 1985. But perhaps he wrote it in spite of himself? The magazine “Télérama” wonders if “behind the pseudo hides an artificial intelligence trained from the Dickerian corpus?” In thanks, the author seems to confirm his existence by welcoming the support of French editors known in the Parisian square.

Besides this mysterious feather, what are the ingredients that hit the bull’s eye? An effective novel involving a successful author with dream life, installed in a chalet on the verge of Lake Geneva with wife and children, pampered by a publisher of which he is the hen with gold eggs. The writer flies with his collection plane, practices the climbing with bare hands, makes the boat and we go. But a youth drama taint this pretty storefront. When he dies, the secrets will resurface.

The search for a manuscript

The novel opens onto the monologue of the character Marceau Miller, in free fall along the rocky wall which he climbed without having been roped. Just before the fatal impact, he confides leaving behind the most important manuscript of his career. His wife Sarah, whose point of view is then adopted most of the time, does not believe in an accident. Helped by a retired cop, nothing will stop it to find the truth, as well as the famous manuscript.

Around revolve his partner and friend, and the Youth Copains of Marceau. The most interesting in this race remains the strong and desperate figure of Sarah. The book will appeal to lovers of polar strongly nested in a place, A genre well present in French -speaking Switzerlandof which there are few examples located on the other bank of Lake Geneva. The author thus walks us between Yvoire, Thonon and the Dent de Vélan, points out horse between France and Switzerland, with an omnipresent Lake Geneva.

Printing of parody

But the book could also be read as a parody of suspense novels, in any case its chapter II, devoted to the evening preceding the death of Marceau Miller. Faithful friends, editor with angels – whose dog is called Freud! -, dream house, and brands festival, from the “Breitling Aviator” watch to “ST DUPONT lighter”, without forgetting “the pocket humidity xikar” for the “co -hiba cigar” …

Parody or not, the intentions of the author broadcast on his site can be interpreted in very diverse ways: “Marceau Miller was born from a desire to play on the border between romantic and truth …” with a reader who “becomes a party taking the investigation, where every detail can take a double meaning ”. The martinière announces in any case already a suite.

Ajar and ferrant cases

The most striking example of use of pseudonym remains that of Romain Gary, the only author to have received the Goncourt Prize twice. He was a winner at 42, in 1956, for “the roots of heaven”, then in 1975 with “life in front of you”, signed by a certain Émile Ajar, a role that the shooter of strings is playing by his cousin, Paul Paul Pavlowitch. The deception will only be revealed after the death of Romain Gary.

Closer to us, the identity of Robert Galbraith, author praised by the criticism of the detective novel “The call of the cuckoo”, was quickly revealed. It was actually JK Rowling, wanting to free himself from the pressure induced by the “Harry Potter” phenomenon.

The case of Elena Ferrante, on the other hand, retains her share of doubt. Despite strong presumptions, no confirmation of the name of the pen behind “the prodigious friend”, a saga on the lives of two friends from a poor district of Naples in the early 1950s, also prodigious. During the rare written interviews she accepted, the person behind this pseudonym said she was a woman, mother, with a work of biographical inspiration. Journalists pointed out Anita Raja, translator of Edizioni E/O editions, who published the Tetralogy, while university studies lean for Domenico Starnone, who is none other than … Anita Raja’s husband.

“La Tribune des Books”

The “Tribune de Genève” offers you sharing of readings, criticisms, the news of the book, reports and your favorites.

Other newsletters

Connect

Did you find an error? Please report it to us.

0 comments