The N'Gustro Affair
Sep 2021 · New York Review of Books
Ebook
200
Pages
Tools
info
family_home
Eligible
info
About this ebook
The debut novel of a pioneering author of French crime thrillers.
Mean, arrogant, naive, sadistic on occasion, the young Henri Butron records his life story on tape just before death catches up with him: a death passed off as a suicide by his killers, French secret service agents who need to hush up their role—and Butron’s—in the kidnapping, torture, and murder of a prominent opposition leader from a third-world African nation in the throes of a postcolonial civil war.
The N’Gustro Affair is a thinly veiled retelling of the 1965 abduction and killing of Mehdi Ben Barka, a radical opponent of King Hassan II of Morocco. But this is merely the backdrop to Jean-Patrick Manchette’s first-person portrait (with shades of Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me) of a man who lacks the insight to see himself for what he is: a wannabe nihilist too weak to be even a full-bore fascist.
Mean, arrogant, naive, sadistic on occasion, the young Henri Butron records his life story on tape just before death catches up with him: a death passed off as a suicide by his killers, French secret service agents who need to hush up their role—and Butron’s—in the kidnapping, torture, and murder of a prominent opposition leader from a third-world African nation in the throes of a postcolonial civil war.
The N’Gustro Affair is a thinly veiled retelling of the 1965 abduction and killing of Mehdi Ben Barka, a radical opponent of King Hassan II of Morocco. But this is merely the backdrop to Jean-Patrick Manchette’s first-person portrait (with shades of Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me) of a man who lacks the insight to see himself for what he is: a wannabe nihilist too weak to be even a full-bore fascist.
The debut novel of a pioneering author of French crime thrillers.
Mean, arrogant, naive, sadistic on occasion, the young Henri Butron records his life story on tape just before death catches up with him: a death passed off as a suicide by his killers, French secret service agents who need to hus...
Discover more
About the author
Jean-Patrick Manchette (1942–1995) was a genre-redefining French crime novelist, screenwriter, critic, and translator. In 1971 he published his first novel, a collaboration with Jean-Pierre Bastid, and went on to produce ten subsequent works over the course of the next two decades, establishing a new genre of French novel, the néo-polar (distinguished from the traditional detective novel, or polar, by its political engagement and social radicalism). Manchette’s Fatale, The Mad and the Bad, Ivory Pearl, Nada, and No Room at the Morgue are also available from NYRB Classics.
Donald Nicholson-Smith was born in Manchester, England, and is a longtime resident of New York City. For NYRB Classics, he has translated Manchette’s Fatale, The Mad and the Bad, Ivory Pearl, and Nada as well as Jean-Paul Clébert’s Paris Vagabond and Frédéric Pajak’s Uncertain Manifesto; and for NYR Comics The Green Hand and Dead Season by Nicole Claveloux and Yellow Negroes and Other Imaginary Creatures by Yvan Alagbé.
Gary Indiana is a critic and novelist. His most recent books include I Can Give You Anything But Love, a memoir, and Tiny Fish That Only Want to Kiss, a collection of short fiction. His writing has appeared in New York magazine, The New York Times, Vice, the London Review of Books, and many other publications.
Donald Nicholson-Smith was born in Manchester, England, and is a longtime resident of New York City. For NYRB Classics, he has translated Manchette’s Fatale, The Mad and the Bad, Ivory Pearl, and Nada as well as Jean-Paul Clébert’s Paris Vagabond and Frédéric Pajak’s Uncertain Manifesto; and for NYR Comics The Green Hand and Dead Season by Nicole Claveloux and Yellow Negroes and Other Imaginary Creatures by Yvan Alagbé.
Gary Indiana is a critic and novelist. His most recent books include I Can Give You Anything But Love, a memoir, and Tiny Fish That Only Want to Kiss, a collection of short fiction. His writing has appeared in New York magazine, The New York Times, Vice, the London Review of Books, and many other publications.
Jean-Patrick Manchette (1942–1995) was a genre-redefining French crime novelist, screenwriter, critic, and translator. In 1971 he published his first novel, a collaboration with Jean-Pierre Bastid, and went on to produce ten subsequent works over the course of the next two decades, establishing a...
Rate this ebook
Tell us what you think.
Reading information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.
