Hélène Bessette

Lili is Crying, H l ne Bessette's debut novel, explores the fraughtness and depth of the troubling relationship between Lili and her mother Charlotte. With a near-mythic quality, Bessette's stripped-back prose evokes at once the pain of thwarted love--of desire run cold--and the promise of renewal. Lauded by critics on its initial publication in 1953 for its boundary-pushing style, Lili is Crying transformed Bessette into a cult author in France. Moving and maddening in turns, the characters are so trapped in their own cruelty and sorrows, but in its spareness it feels true: "Show me a woman who has actually chosen something." Championed by Raymond Queneau, then an editor at Gallimard, Bessette's novels were hailed for their experimentation, unusual economy of expression, rarity, strange humor, and their sheer vivacity.

In an opulent villa near the English Channel lives a family. The father has a safe, a spanner, a candle and a maid called Rose. The son has a swing, a croquet set, a raincoat, a car. Some members of the family read crime novels to fall asleep (the father), some instead of sleeping (the son), and some to ease the loneliness of an unhappy marriage (the mother). Their equilibrium is shattered in the wake of a shocking incident and the twenty minutes of silence that follow. Darkly comedic and wonderfully strange, Twenty Minutes of Silence is a truly original take on the crime genre, inspired by a true story. Here Hélène Bessette builds a world of intrigue, a world punctured by startling disruptions and unexpected shifts, and in doing so destroys and remakes the crime novel, creating a form wholly new.

In an opulent villa near the English channel lives a well-to-do family. A man--a husband, father, and employer--has been shot dead. The bullet is from his own gun, which he got from the Germans during the war. In this family, the father has a safe, a monkey wrench, a wife, and a maid named Rose. The son has a swing, a croquet set, a rain coat, and a car. They all read detective novels to fall asleep (the father), to stay awake (the son), to distract herself from an empty marriage (the mother). Packed with brutal revelations, the novel centers on the twenty minutes of silence it takes for the family to alert the doctor (who lives next door) of the father's death. Everything in this high-octane drama is subject to change, including the setting and the characters, who are truer to life than might at first appear. But who if anyone is the true criminal and who is the victim? In this marvelous and sui generis novel, written in Bessette's signature taut and stripped-back prose, the detective novel is turned inside out and wholly on its head.

Lili is Crying, Hélène Bessette’s debut novel, explores the fraughtness and depth of the troubling relationship between Lili and her mother Charlotte. With a near-mythic quality, Bessette’s stripped-back prose evokes at once the pain of thwarted love – of desire run cold – and the promise of renewal. Lauded by critics on its initial publication in 1953 for its boundary-pushing style, unusual economy of expression, strange humour and sheer vivacity, Lili is Crying announces Bessette’s singular take on the ‘poetic novel’. This edition marks the very first translation of Bessette’s work into English, by Windham-Campbell Prize-winning author and translator Kate Briggs.

Helene Bessette (1918-2000) - znakovaja figura francuzskogo avangarda, rodonachal'nica pojeticheskogo romana, ljubimica Rajmona Keno, Natali Sarrot, Simony de Bovuar i Andre Mal'ro. Pojavlenie Besset na literaturnoj arene serediny XX veka proizvelo nastojashhij furor, ona po pravu sniskala slavu francuzskogo Dzhojsa. Margerit Djuras, kotoruju kak-to sprosili, kogo iz sovremennyh pisatelej stoit chitat', zajavila: Jelen Besset, nikogo bolee Dvadcat' minut tishiny - odin iz glavnyh romanov Besset. Jeto avangardistskij tekst, odnovremenno pojeticheskij i prozaicheskij, v kotorom burnoe dejstvo razygryvaetsja lish' v voobrazhenii rasskazchicy. Pljus ko vsemu - jeto detektiv s chernym jumorom. A eshhe - roman-obmanka, poskol'ku zaputannoe rassledovanie okazyvaetsja istoriej... obychnoj svechki.