Winner of the Prix Renaudot, this literary novel about a murder straddles the line between the tragic and the absurd– from the author of the plays Art and God of Carnage

Elisabeth, a pensive, memory-laden science professional in a long and tender marriage, has barely befriended their touching younger neighbor when in a fit of blind pain over a scornful scolding the man kills his beloved and appealing wife. Elisabeth is drawn, out of sympathy, to help her sad friend cover up his crime. Her account of her unaccountable impulse moves into a quick-moving, canny police procedural–humor and sorrow, life. An absorbing tale from the skilled hand of playwright/novelist Yasmina Reza.