Buried deep in rural France, in the few remains of an isolated hamlet, is a curiously assembled quartet: Patrice Bergogne, inheritor of his family’s farm; his wife, Marion; their daughter, Ida; and their neighbour, Christine, an artist. While Patrice plans a surprise for his wife’s fortieth birthday, inexplicable events start to disrupt the hamlet’s quiet existence: anonymous, menacing letters, an unfamiliar car rolling up the driveway. And as night falls, strangers stalk the houses, unleashing a nightmarish chain of events.
*
The Birthday Party is a strange and marvellous thing: a thrillerin slow motion.
Jon McGregor
*
Imagine a Stephen King thriller hijacked by Proust.
Lee Langley
*
This astute thriller doesn’t disappoint.
Declan O’Driscoll
*
What matters, as always in Mauvignier’s work, is giving a voice to the voiceless, the worthless, the unloved, the humiliated, even if this is done with unprecedented violence.
