Bird in a Cage

<p>Frédéric Dard (1921-2000) was one of the best known and loved French crime writers of the twentieth century. Enormously prolific he wrote hundreds of thrillers suspense stories plays and screenplays throughout his long and illustrious career. <i>The Wicked Go to Hell</i> <i>Crush</i> and <i>The Executioner Weeps</i> (for which he won the 1957 <i>Grand prix de littérature policière</i>) will also be published by Pushkin Vertigo. <br><br>David Bellos is an English translator and biographer. His translations include several of Georges Simenon's Maigret novels as well as Paul Fournel's <i>Dear Reader</i> published by Pushkin Press. He has also written biographies of Perec Jacques Tati and Romain Gary and an introduction to translation<i> Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything</i>.</p> <p><i>It felt like the slipknot on a rope round my chest was being tightened without pity</i><br><br>Trouble is the last thing Albert needs. Travelling back to his childhood home on Christmas Eve to mourn his mother's death he finds the loneliness and nostalgia of his Parisian <i>quartier</i> unbearable... Until that evening he encounters a beautiful seemingly innocent woman at a brasserie and his spirits are lifted.<br><br>Still something about the woman disturbs him. Where is the father of her child? And what are those two red stains on her sleeve? When she invites him back to her apartment Albert thinks he's in luck. But a monstrous scene awaits them and he finds himself lured into the darkness against his better judgment.<br><br>Unravelling like a paranoid nightmare <i>Bird in a Cage </i>melds existentialist drama with thrilling noir to tell the story of a man trapped in a prison of his own making.</p> <p><i>It felt like the slipknot on a rope round my chest was being tightened without pity</i><br><br>Trouble is the last thing Albert needs. Travelling back to his childhood home on Christmas Eve to mourn his mother's death he finds the loneliness and nostalgia of his Parisian <i>quartier</i> unbearable... Until that evening he encounters a beautiful seemingly innocent woman at a brasserie and his spirits are lifted.<br><br>Still something about the woman disturbs him. Where is the father of her child? And what are those two red stains on her sleeve? When she invites him back to her apartment Albert thinks he's in luck. But a monstrous scene awaits them and he finds himself lured into the darkness against his better judgment.<br><br>Unravelling like a paranoid nightmare <i>Bird in a Cage </i>melds existentialist drama with thrilling noir to tell the story of a man trapped in a prison of his own making.</p>