Mondays Book Talk - The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affiar

Written by MikeH 

The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair by Joël Dicker

There are books that have the power to seduce us as readers, to make us delve into their pages and The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair is no exception. I found it so easy to read that I consumed it in around three weeks! This novel by the young Swiss author Joël Dicker about a blocked writer and suspected killer has become a best-seller since it hit the shelves. The book has been published in more than 45 countries and translated into over 30 languages. 

Joël Dicker was born on 16 June 1985 in Geneva, Switzerland, where he pursued most of his studies. From an early age, Joël has had a passion for writing. At age 20, he made his first attempts as a fiction writer with a short story called Le Tigre (The Tiger) which won him the International Prize for Young French-speaking Authors. Then at the age of 24, he produces Les Derniers Jours de Nos Pères (The Final Days of our Fathers), a novel that tells the true but little-known story of the SOE, an underground branch of the British Secret Intelligence Service. Two years following the publication of this book, the thriller La Vérité sur l’Affaire Harry Quebert or The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair was published. 

The book’s central plot focuses on the murder investigation in rural New Hampshire of a 15-year old girl by the name of Nola Kellergan which is reopened 33 years after the events in question when a body is dug up in someone’s backyard. The backyard happens to belong to Harry Quebert, a successful novelist in his sixties who is still famous from one single book. Buried with the body is a manuscript of Quebert’s book, a love story called The Origin of Evil, inspired by a secret affair with Nola. Inevitably, the locals in the town of Aurora turn against him, and he is arrested. The only person who retains his faith in him is Quebert’s former student, the starry young novelist and protagonist of this thriller, Marcus Goldman, now crippled with writer’s block. Goldman sets out to solve the mystery and clear Harry’s name. The result of this investigation becomes his second book.

Dicker has penned for us a brilliant thriller (or fictional crime) in detailed manner but easy to read. The plot is very well constructed that it keeps its readers guessing from the very first pages until the end. What this thriller does well is what all good thrillers should do: present good twists, turns and red-herrings to hold the reader’s attention. The series of intrigues coming in every chapter are also very well presented and the characters and their motivations come alive so vividly; love, greed, jealousy and guilt, all leading to murder and lies. 

Another aspect that drew my attention is that Joël Dicker presents the story about a blocked author looking for inspiration to write a book, giving us a good lesson about the writing process.  The book shows the events surrounding a second writer, writing a different book; and that second writer was the man who taught the first writer how to write. Plus, as the novel unfolds, its chapters are interleaved with quotations from Quebert's literary advice to Goldman.  

If you are into epic intrigues and red-herrings, then don’t hesitate to pick up The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair. Get ready to spend couple of weeks caught in the story, its characters and the mysteries surrounding the disappearance of Nola Kellergan. I believe this novel will not let you down! And last but not least, any writer, blogger or any other person in the writing industry would find this novel encouraging and inspirational. 

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Image: Supplied by Author