Crawl Space A Novel [Paperback]

Winner of the Bard Fiction Prize
ASan Francisco ChronicleBest Book of the Year
AnElectric ReviewBest Book of the Year
AReadySteadyBookBest Book of the Year

It's 1999 and Emile Poulquet awaits sentencing in a Paris court for deporting thousands to almost certain death during World War II. But, haunted by ghosts from his former life, and determined to confront his dark legacy, he escapes and heads toward his beloved Finier, a rural town in the south of France where he once served as prefect. His return will have explosive consequences.

By turns reflective and slyly humorous,Crawl Spacepoignantly describes one man's tragic attempt to come to terms with the past.

[Meidav's] portrait of Poulquet is chilling in its understatement. . . . Meidav sounds the notes of detachment and desperation in Poulquet's voice with unflinching exactness. . . . Meidav's seriousness and energy demand nonetheless that we hold her novel to the highest standards. The New York Times Book Review

[A] finely crafted, seriocomic tale . . . An ambitious book in the tradition of the European novel of ideas, addressing the failure of memory, the ineluctability of fate, and the age-old issues of guilt and redemption . . . [Narrator Poulquet is] charming, a literate raconteur. . . . Meidav's novel is a reminder of the power of the culture to shape morality [and] demonstrates her considerable gifts as a stylist; there's not a false note in the prose. San Francisco Chronicle

A vivid panorama of the modern world, refracted through an amazingly intricate character. The secrets of history, the unrequited loves and betrayals, the disgraces and disappointments and confusions--all are revived for Emile Poulquet, who, in trying to escape his past, runs headlong into the trap of memory and guilt.Crawl Spaceis the work of a fearless writer with a cosmic imagination. Joanna Scott