The Stone Boy [Paperback]

The bestselling French phenomenon, winner of the Prix Lion Noir, now available in English for the first time...

When Madame Pr?au returns to her own house outside Paris after several years spent in a convalescent home, she immediately notices that the neighborhood has changed. Now, instead of a beautiful garden next door there is a new house. And she can see directly into her new neighbors' windows.

Madame Pr?au quickly feels that something isn't right. Her neighbors have two perfectly healthy children who play in the yard after school. But there is also a third child: a young boy who looks malnourished and abused, and tosses small stones at her window in an apparent call for help. The family denies his existence.

But is the little boy real, or merely a hallucination of a lonely, mentally unstable old woman cut off from her own beloved grandson?

When the police refuse to listen to her, Madame Pr?au decides to take matters into her own hands. She's determined to help the little boy, and she'll do anything to make sure he's safe...
Translated in a deliciously forthright style by Nora Mahony,The Stone Boymischievously toys with the reader's expectations, blending elements from the traditional mystery tale with those of the paranormal...The irascible and irrepressible Madame Pr?au makes for a delightfully ambiguous protagonist, and Loubiere deftly plots a compelling tale that is as poignantly heartbreaking as it is thrilling. Irish Times A creepy psychological thriller....Is the boy real? Is Martin a loyal son or a conspirator? The truth is as chilling as the rest of this unsls0