Description
Book SynopsisIn Pisa, Italy, an Armenian immigrant named Marco Iprannossian sits in jail awaiting judgment on the attempted murder of a local official.
The novel opens on the first day of his hearing—three years after his arrest—and follows the lives of Marco, his friends on the outside, the judge presiding over this case, her husband, and their teenage daughter, Lea. Through deceptively structured as a crime novel, Quarry's real concerns are both far smaller and far larger than those of a typical whodunit.
Houdart's modern tale, presented in a series of brief, elliptical snapshots, is a precision-cut gem of literary minimalism.
Trade Review"In brief chapters full of sharp, luminous, and original observations…Houdart both fulfills and transcends the conventions of the crime novel. Memorable for the way it casts Marco's fate as just one node in a network of friendships, relationships, coincidences, and echoes, this slim novel is a surprising pleasure." —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"Célia Houdart composes Quarry's plot with snapshots stolen from time, suspended in the present....The reader is a spectator who assists, a delighted voyeur, with this succession of scenes. He rejoices in the minimal and precise gaze that the writer has on things." —Le Temps, Éléonore Sulser
