In the Shadow of the Fire

Description

The Paris Commune's "bloody week" sees the climax of the savagery of the clashes between the Communards and the French Armed Forces loyal to Versailles. Amid the shrapnel and the chaos, while the entire west side of Paris is a field of ruins, a photographer fascinated by the suffering of young women takes "suggestive" photos to sell to a particular clientele. Young women begin disappearing, and when Caroline, a seamstress who volunteers at a first aid station, is counted among the missing, her fiance Nicolas, a member of the Commune's National Guard, and Communal security officer Antoine, sets off independently in search of her. Their race against the clock to find her takes them through the shell-shocked streets of Paris, and introduces them to a cast of fascinating characters.

Herve Le Corre was born in Paris and currently teaches in the suburbs of Bordeaux. He is the author of several crime fiction novels, including Talking to Ghosts (2014), and After the War (Maclehose Press 2015). He also writes for the literary magazine Le Passant Ordinaire. Tina Kover is a literary translator whose works include The Black City by Georges Sand, Adelaide Bon's The Little Girl on the Ice Floe. For Europa she translated Disoriental by Negar Djavadi, and Older Brother by Mahir Guven.

"An astounding epic in which the reader is taken above all with the strength of the solidarity and heroism of ordinary people, and the infinite hope of those who believe to the end in the causes they are fighting for." * L'Express * "Le Corre is an aquafortist. From beginning to end of this dazzling novel, he deepens the shadows in his Paris of soot and night. Here and there, touches of colour: the bloody red of the Communards' flag, the incandescence of a fire, the flame of a hurricane lamp. Glimmers of hope flicker and don't go out." * Le Monde * "In a perfectly constructed historical frame, supported by breathless intrigue, Herve Le Corre offers up a fascinating red-and-black novel. To be read passionately!" * aVoir-aLire *