A well translated mystery – or is it contemporary fiction? There’s one mystery, but it’s not a who-dunnit, it’s simply what happened to the people who owned and who own the house on the hill above an abandoned village. There are two stories in alternating chapters, the first, the mystery which takes place in 1914 and 1915 and the second story, which takes place in 2017 when a couple rent the house for three weeks.

There is quite a bit of buildup on both stories, as jealousy, meat shortages, WWI, and unexpected love occur in the first and the evolution of the man from town-dwelling-cellphone-wielding producer to cunning adversary in the second. There are some beautiful descriptions and interesting perspectives on how people reacted to the Great War early on in a small village and interesting perspectives on Lise and Franck’s marriage and what motivates each in the isolation of the house on the hill. I couldn’t imagine how each story would resolve, which kept me reading although there was such detail and focus that it had to be read with deliberation and a slow pace in order to fully appreciate the nuances. ( )

It's difficult for me to judge a translated work because I don't necessarily know which aspects are inherent to the original text. In this case I was definitely conscious the entire time that I was reading a translation -- in many places it felt clunky and occasionally even incomprehensible. (That's not to suggest it's all bad. There were also some really beautiful moments in the text, eg "They paced nervously up and down in a sort of symmetrical dance, the choreography of famished beasts.") I also felt that the story itself was rather repetitive. I love a good slow burn (and I also like unlikable characters!), but just because the action is taking a long time to build doesn't mean I need to hear the characters' motivations repeated endlessly. I almost think this story might work better as a slow film, where strategic silence could be used effectively in place of such circular storytelling. The plot itself had a strong appeal for me and I would like to find a copy in the original French to see the difference.

characters are bland, it's extremely repetitive, and the chapters in the modern era specifically are tedious to get through. the prose itself is very dry, which just doesn’t work in this sort of thriller/horror novel. it definitely had some good ideas and set pieces, but just never came together as a novel so i quit at page 232. ( )

This started out promising, but quickly devolved. First, it seemed like the main character switched (or at least wasn't established well). I thought the protagonist was the wife, but it ended up being the husband. The husband was unlikeable in so many ways and the story's progression made little sense. How quickly the protagonist devolved just didn't make sense. You'd think it took place over the course of months, but I'm pretty sure it was literally days (for the contemporary arc of the story). The ending was so rushed too - it just seems it wasn't planned out for both the past and present storyline. ( )

This was not the book for me, but it might be the book for you. The descriptions of Orcieres were amazing, but I found the characters, especially Franck, to have no likeable characteristics. I found the story of Wolfgang and Josephine to be slightly more interesting than that of Franck and Lise. If you like a book that moves along at a leisurely pace and alternates between two time periods, this might be a book to consider. ( )