The Great Swindle

The vast sweep of the novel and its array of extraordinary secondary characters have attracted comparisons with the works of Balzac. Moving, angry, intelligent - and compulsive -- Marcel Berlins * The Times * A big, swirling tale that itself reads like a 19th-century novel ... thick with detail, immersing the reader in its elaborately bleak world -- Sarah Lyall * New York Times * This book is thick with detail, immersing the reader in its elaborately bleak world ... an irresistible story -- Patricia Wall * New York Times * Exceptionally powerful examination of the aftermath of war and of the people whose lives were washed away in its wake -- Nick Rennison * Sunday Times * Lemaitre's novel is a rare synthesis of the tragic and the comic - a masterclass in nail-biting suspense ... Frank Wynne is a superb translator who captures the rude exuberance of the original French -- Edward Wilson * Independent * Engrossing . . . one of the most pleasurable reading experiences of recent years -- David Mills * The Sunday Times * Lemaitre's deadpan ironic tone is beautifully caught by his regular translator Frank Wynne. A kind of Ealing comedy with a bruised but still beating heart, this is the most purely enjoyable book I've read this year * Sunday Express * A fast-paced tale, filled with twists and turns, following a mischievous, disillusioned view of post-war France * Figaro * A masterly epic of post-war France, where impostures triumph and capitalists grow rich from the ruins * Le Monde * You feel the author's indignation ... Who really profits from war? Crooks, the vengeful and frauds: The Great Swindle is political as much as it is picaresque * Tlrama *

Pierre Lemaitre was born in Paris in 1951. He worked for many years as a teacher of literature before becoming a novelist. He was awarded the Crime Writers' Association International Dagger, alongside Fred Vargas, for Alex. In 2013 his novel Au revoir l -haut (The Great Swindle, in English translation) won the Prix Goncourt, France's leading literary award.