Chourmo

Description

The second novel in Izzo's acclaimed Marseilles trilogy is a touching tribute to the author's beloved city, in all its colour and complexity. Fabio Montale is an unwitting hero in this city of melancholy beauty. Fabio Montale has left a police force marred by corruption, xenophobia, and greed. But getting out is not going to be so easy. When his cousin's son goes missing, Montale is dragged back onto the mean streets of a violent, crime-infested Marseilles. To discover the truth about the boy's disappearance, he infiltrates a dangerous underworld of mobsters, religious fanatics, crooked cops, and ordinary people whom desperation has driven to extremes.

Jean-Claude Izzo was born in Marseilles, France, in 1945. Best known for the Marseilles trilogy (Total Chaos, Chourmo, Solea), Izzo is also the author of The Lost Sailors, A Sun for the Dying, Garlic, Mint, & Sweet Basil, and one collection of short stories, Living Tires. He died in 2000 at the age of fifty-five. Award-winning translator Howard Curtis has worked on more than sixty books from French, Italian and Spanish. Among his recent translations for Europa are works by Jean-Claude Izzo and Santiago Gamboa.

"Just as Raymond Chandler and James Ellroy made Los Angeles their very own, so Mr. Izzo has made Marseilles so much more than just another geographical setting." * The Economist * "Izzo's ability to describe Marseilles and to make his readers feel the multiracial reality of that city so directly and authentically is fascinating." -- Andrea Camilleri "One of the masterpieces of modern noir." * The Washington Post * "Like the best noir writers-and make no mistake, he is among the best-Izzo not only has a keen eye for detail . . . but also digs deep into what makes men weep." * Time Out New York * "Izzo provides another guided tour of the underbelly of Marseilles (so extensive that it seems to swallow the whole city) that's bracing in its wit and velocity." * Kirkus (starrred review) *