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Today, “Les Promises” by Jean-Christophe Grangé, published on September 8, 2021 by Éditions Albin Michel.
Audrey Escoin, contributor to the
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Les Promises
by Jean-Christophe Grangé, published on September 8, 2021 by Éditions Albin Michel.
Her favorite quote:
“At night, the brain, freed from its censorship and its fears, could see reality as it was and reached a singular lucidity. "
Why this book?
Because the historical context gives all the scope to this novel.
We are at the end of the 1930s, in Berlin, a few weeks before war was declared. We spend 653 pages in the heart of the German capital, in its nauseating atmosphere in the midst of Nazism. The author describes the streets, the landscapes, and the works of the greater Berlin. We hear the sounds of boots, the screams, and the whispers of rumors. It is in this context that we find the mutilated bodies of several well-placed women in this 3rd Reich.
Because this story of a serial killer is chilling
and we are passionate about this news item that will link three characters: Simon Krauss, psychoanalyst, specialist in dreams, in his office parades the beautiful people of the capital, including the wives elites of the National Socialist Party. He listens to them, notes the content of their dreams but especially takes the opportunity to put them in his bed to make them sing. Franz Beewen, a Gestapo agent, brutal, cold and cynical and Mina Von Hassel, a talented psychiatrist, although alcoholic and tortured.
Because this novel is dense, everything is finely detailed
and makes the story very rich and infinitely fascinating.
The characters are presented in all their darkness and truth.
Many are imperfect, but we know why.
Everything is explained and analyzed.
This police investigation is linked to the theme of psychoanalysis and the study of dreams.
All the documentary work used to make this theme complete is very instructive (we are just after the Freud years, with the rise of this discipline.) The story is very addictive, revealing many surprises.
The essentials in 2 minutes
The plot.
The Promises
are these great Ladies of the Reich, beautiful and carefree, who meet every afternoon to discuss.
They are also the victims of a mysterious killer, who surprises them on the banks of the Spree or near the lakes, subjecting them to horrible mutilations ...
Characters.
Simon Kraus, a psychoanalyst.
Mina von Hassel, director of an asylum and psychoanalyst.
Franz Beewen, investigator for the Gestapo.
Nazi dignitaries, the families of the main characters, the Berlin population.
Places.
Berlin.
The time.
The years 1930-1940.
The author.
Cult, the work of Jean-Christophe Grangé has been translated into more than thirty languages… Most of his thrillers have been adapted for cinema or television.
This book has been read with
patient and thoroughness.
This novel requires a demanding reading but the intensity of this story so deserves it.
He is an author that I only read once, several years ago, and here I was downright blown away by the pen and the story of this novel as I have not read for a long time .
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