Laurent Mauvignier

«Bursdagsfesten» er en fortelling om grenseoverskridelse, og om hvordan fortidige hemmeligheter kan få dramatiske konsekvenser i nåtiden. Bonden Patrice Bergogne har arvet familiegården i en pittoresk, isolert grend på den franske landsbygda. Der bor han sammen med kona Marion, datteren deres Ida og naboen Christine, en parisisk kunstmaler som lever et stille og tilbaketrukket liv med hunden Radjah. I anledning Marions førtiårsdag planlegger de tre andre å overraske henne med en intim bursdagsfest, men livet på landet er ikke så idyllisk som det later til. Christine har i lang tid mottatt anonyme og truende brev, Patrice er frustrert og utilfreds, mens Marion er likegyldig og trett. Og ved mørkets frembrudd lusker tre fremmede skikkelser mellom gårdshusene, før de setter i gang en marerittaktig kjede av hendelser. Laurent Mauvignier (f. 1967) er utdannet billedkunstner og debuterte som forfatter i 1999. Han har mottatt en rekke prestisjetunge priser for romanene sine, inkludert den franske bokhandlerprisen Prix des libraires. «Bursdagsfesten» er hans første utgivelse på norsk.

2023 International Booker Prize, LonglistNew York Times Editors' Choice"A real-time study in crippling self-consciousness, the fragility of normalcy, and the reality of violence."--The New York TimesBuried deep in rural France, little remains of the isolated hamlet of the Three Lone Girls, save a few houses and a curiously assembled quartet: Patrice Bergogne, inheritor of his family's farm; his wife, Marion; their daughter, Ida; and their neighbor, 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 unfamiliarcar rolling up the driveway. And as night falls, strangers stalk the houses, unleashinga nightmarish chain of events. Told in rhythmic, propulsive prose that weaves seamlessly from one consciousness to the next over the course of a day, Laurent Mauvignier's The Birthday Party is a deft unraveling of the stories we hide from others and from ourselves, a gripping tale of the violent irruptions of the past into the present, written by a major contemporary French writer.

Buried deep in rural France, little remains of the isolated hamlet of the Three Lone Girls, save a few houses and 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. Told in rhythmic, propulsive prose that weaves seamlessly from one consciousness to the next over the course of a day, Laurent Mauvignier’s The Birthday Party is a deft unravelling of the stories we hide from others and from ourselves, a gripping tale of the violent irruptions of the past into the present, written by a major contemporary French writer.

"Where is your wound?" asks Jean Genet in the lines Laurent Mauvignier uses as an epigraph to The Wound. By the time we have finished this four-part novel, we realize that for many the wound lies four decades back in "the Events" that people have tried to not talk about ever since: the Algerian War. Chronicling the lives of two cousins—Bernard and Rabut—both in the present and at the time of the Algerian War of Independence in the 1960s, we get a full picture of the lasting effects this event had on the men who were involved. Through the fragments of their stories we see the whole history of the war: its atrocities, its horrors, and its hatreds. Mauvignier shows readers how the Algerian War, always present yet always repressed, has sickened the emotional and moral life of everyone it touched—and France itself, perhaps. The epigraph, like the novel, suggests that wounded men may even become the wound itself.

The Heysel Stadium, Brussels, May 1985. Jeff and Tonino, two Parisian football fans with serious drinking habits, are on their way to the European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus. So too are newlyweds Tana and Francesco; troubled young couple Gabriel and Virginie; and Liverpool supporter Geoff Andrewson, travelling with his brothers.As these four groups of characters cross paths, and as the excitement of the build-up gives way to horrific tragedy, their lives and relationships are changed forever.