Paris Noir Read online

  Waiting for What?

  Home. It’s on the last floor; above that, there’s the sky. I feel like I’m on vacation here, in transit—away from the world and life. I’m closer to the sky than to the street. The world is locked out. I see the world on TV, it has the consistency of a plasma screen, nice colors, and often there’s background music to muddle up the commentary.

  I was wrong to go out. Without the French medical-social system that provides access to free care, I never would have left home, given the price of the scan, the fibro test, the colon test, the ultrasound, and a friendly word of advice.

  “You sure took your time,” says Sarah. “What’d you do?”

  “When? Nothing.”

  (It’s true almost nothing you might as well say little and badly done but after all far away means almost and in a bad way but after all hidden elsewhere or else hidden here crouching inside but disaffected like totally devitalized so this evening nothing more, no thanks, I’m full, a few more steps yes preferably in town without the seasons coming down with the noise and the back of the crowd and the back of the walls and already come back to sleep no doubt or eat to talk a little alone or not watch television and then turn it off and say something always the same thing about finally going to sleep before getting a cold from a window that’s not closed well or shade from a tree there outside night pain and fear of giants first then dwarfs and all kinds of flying and crawling insects in great numbers and a foreign language but not more than a hasty translation than the idea you have of it now furtive with cloud and whirlwind so to be grabbed with a certain precaution before making honey from it on the contrary from your surroundings shapes and noise in the house maybe joyfully but still sort of always the same thing joyful toothless that is pretty little might as well say almost nothing next to two bumblebees in the left ear and the right ear and a sty on your eye first and then deafness and glaucoma the next day and stiffness of the hands and feet and the mouth and lights out of love to the disgust with moving and saying the essential minimum not to mention vain naïve pain and fatigue because well all that why again what can you say if not to warn once again about what whoever didn’t already happen every day and before days of a necessary or optional absence or presence for the proper functioning of the troops or the end of hostilities how to know without foreseeing the ability to worry or despair generating reactions of joy explosions of hatred but I should be asleep already gone to or remained asleep here or there in the same state of a dead or ignorant ignored thing.)

  “Nothing? No news is good news. Did you buy some wine at the Nicolas store?”

  “Meursault.”

  “What’s that package wrapped up with tape?”

  “It was in my mailbox this morning. It must be the iPod you ordered on eBay for Chloe’s birthday.”

  “Cool! Did you see my leopardskin tights?”

  “You dyed your hair again?”

  “Yes, to relax a little. I went to the bank because of that business of unpaid rent, it’s a crazy story.”

  “It’s always a crazy story.”

  “We’ve never been so alone, fused together in the same madness,lost in a world that has the consistency of a fantasy, it worriesus to death.I read that in a book by Dardenne, I’m going to write something about it.”

  “You’re lucky you can still write.”

  (As for me, all I’m good at is waiting for the results of the biopsy. It’s like waiting for a verdict. Ten years, twenty years? A few weeks? And at the same time I don’t give a damn. Nothing I can do about it. The die is cast.)

  “Where are the kids?”

  “Julien’s at his PlayStation and Chloe’s sleeping over at her girlfriend’s.”

  (I have no power over their lives. Here or not here, same thing. I floundered around all day whereas the street was straight. I screwed around, I nearly, I don’t know what I nearly did, I nearly did something I didn’t do I didn’t smile enough, I looked pissed off all day, not what you call an honorable exit.)

  “When do you get the results?”

  “I don’t give a shit.”

  “Talk louder, I’m in the shower.”

  Nobody pays attention to me with my dickhead and my asshole. The world turns. Women blossom. China is catching up with the rest of the world. I go out without waiting. Waiting for what?

  Closing Time

  It’s cold, night. Rue d’Alésia, deserted. Shutters closed. Bar-tabac shop lit up. I’m in the café at the very bottom of rue Gla-cière and rue de la Santé, the light in the jailhouse is diffuse at night, it isn’t lit. Walls eat up the blackness of the sky. Anemic streetlights shining very weakly on the barbed wire. The street is full of murders, fits of madness, creeping illnesses, and a whole planned contagion. The threat of an epidemic, gangrene. Dirty tricks. Everything is maintained there, a shadow zone, like a nuclear power plant. You have the feeling something’s going to happen, finally.

  I’m reading a crime book by Albert Camus. Reading and writing for oneself and not counting on other people is a way of being French, being a zero from A to Z. So I’m reading TheStranger. I am that stranger. It’s a way of being out of it, being here by chance, in transit.

  “Get out of here,” the manager says. “We’re closing up. You’ve read enough, dickhead.”

  “I’m finishing the page, boss.”

  I took a step, one step, forward. And this time, without getting up, the Arab drew his knife and held it up to me inthe sun. The light shot off the steel and it was like a longflashing blade cutting at my forehead … My whole beingtensed and I squeezed my hand around the revolver. Thetrigger gave; I felt the smooth underside of the butt; andthere … is where it all started.

  The light went out, the café closed. Everything closed. I finished living for the day. I’ll never know what began.

  ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

  SALIM BACHI is the Algerian author of Le Chien d’Ulysse, La Kahéna,and Tuez-les tous. Le Chien d’Ulyssewon the Prix Goncourt for best first novel and La Kahénawon the Prix Tropiques in 2004. He has been living in France since 1996.

  DIDIER DAENINCKX was born in Saint-Denis, France in 1949. After working for ten years in a printing office, he began to write and created his series hero, Inspector Cadin. He has won many literary awards, including Le Grand Prix de Lit-térature Policière in 1985 for Meurtres pour mémoireand the Paul Féval prize for lifetime accomplishment.

  DOAwas born in Lyon and worked as a creator of video games in France and London before finally settling into the dark side of literature. He is the author of several highly acclaimed novels, including Les Fous d’avril,which won the Prix Agostino in 2005, La Ligne de sang,and Citoyens clandestins,which won Le Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in 2007.

  JÉRÔME LEROY was born in the north of France. Whether writing short stories that are primarily poetic (La grâce efficace) or a science-fiction novel (Big Sister), Leroy’s work is always adventurous, dark, and visionary.

  DOMINIQUE MAINARDis the author of the novels Le grandfakir(2001) and Leur histoire,which won the Prix du Roman FNAC in 2002, the Prix Alain-Fournier in 2003, and was adapted into a film by Alain Corneau in 2005 under the name Les Mots bleus.

  LAURENT MARTIN was born in Djibouti in 1966. He is an art historian and archeologist. His first novel, L’Ivresse desdieux,based on a Greek tragedy, won Le Grand Prix de Lit-térature Policière in 2003. His subsequent novels include Latribu des morts, Or noir peur blanche, and Des rives lointaines.

  AURÉLIEN MASSONwas born in 1975 and became an editorial assistant for la Série Noire at Gallimard, one of France’s premier publishing houses, in 2002 ; he was promoted to director of the series in 2005.

  CHRISTOPHE MERCIERwas born in 1960 and has worked as an editor, literary critic, and translator. He published his first book, Les singes hurleurs sur l’autre rive, in 2003, then Lacantatricein 2005.

  PATRICK PÉCHEROTwrote his first novel, Tiuraï,at the age of forty-six. He is the author of eight novels, including Soleil noir
, recently published by la Série Noire, an imprint of Gallimard. He won Le Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in 2002 for Les brouillards de la butte.

  CHANTAL PELLETIERwrote for theater and film before publishing her first novel, Eros et Thalasso, featuring Inspector Maurice Laice. Her subsequent novels include Le chant duBoucand More Is Less.

  JEAN-BERNARD POUYis a celebrated figure in the French literary landscape and the author of many groundbreaking works of fiction. Born in 1946, Pouy is the creator of the highly acclaimed Poulpeseries featuring protagonist Gabriel Lecouvreur. His novel La Belle de Fontenaywon the Trophée 813 and Prix Mystère de la Critique; and La Clef des mensongeswon the Prix Polar in 1989. He also writes for film and radio.

  HERVÉ PRUDONwas born in 1950. His novels include Mardi-gris, Le Bourdon, and Nadine Mouque, which won the Prix Louis Guilloux in 1995.

  MARC VILLARD has written books revolving around a wide variety of subjects, including dead jazz musicians (La dame estune traînée) and redemption for junkies (La vie d’artiste). But his talent shines brightest, according to Villard, in his short stories.

  Also available from the Akashic Books Noir Series

  ROME NOIR

  edited by Chiara Stangalino edited by Chiara Stangalino & Maxim Jakubowski

  300 pages, trade paperback original, $15.95

  Groundbreaking collection of original stories, all translated from Italian.

  Brand new stories by:Antonio Scurati, Carlo Lucarelli, Gianrico Carofiglio, Diego De Silva, Giuseppe Genna, Marcello Fois, Cristiana Danila Formetta, Enrico Franceschini, Boosta, and others.

  From Stazione Termini, immortalized by Roberto Rossellini’s films, to Pier Paolo Pasolini’s desolate beach of Ostia, and encompassing famous landmarks and streets, this is the sinister side of the Dolce Vita come to life, a stunning gallery of dark characters, grotesques, and lost souls seeking revenge or redemption in the shadow of the Colosseum, the Spanish Steps, the Vatican, Trastevere, the quiet waters of the Tiber, and Piazza Navona. Rome will never be the same.

  ISTANBUL NOIR

  edited by Mustafa Ziyalan edited by Mustafa Ziyalan & Amy Spangler 300 pages, trade paperback original, $15.95

  Brand new stories by:Müge Iplikçi, Behçet Çelik, Ismail Güzelsoy, Lydia Lunch, Hikmet Hükümenoglu, Riza Kiraç, Sadik Yemni, Baris Müstecaplioglu, Yasemin Aydinoglu, Feryal Tilmaç, and others.

  Comprised of entirely new stories by some of Turkey’s most exciting authors—some still up-and-coming, others well-established and critically acclaimed in their homeland, as well as by a couple of “outsiders” temporarily held hostage in the city’s vice—Istanbul Noirintroduces a whole new breed of talent.

  BROOKLYN NOIR

  edited by Tim McLoughlin

  350 pages, trade paperback original, $15.95

  *Winner of Shamus Award, Anthony Award, Robert L. Fish Memorial

  Award; finalist for Edgar Award, Pushcart Prize.

  Brand new stories by:Pete Hamill, Arthur Nersesian, Ellen Miller, Nelson George, Nicole Blackman, Sidney Offit, Ken Bruen, and others.

  “Brooklyn Noiris such a stunningly perfect combination that you can’t believe you haven’t read an anthology like this before. But trust me—you haven’t. Story after story is a revelation, filled with the requisite sense of place, but also the perfect twists that crime stories demand. The writing is flat-out superb, filled with lines that will sing in your head for a long time to come.”

  head for a long time to come.”

  —Laura Lippman, winner of the Edgar, Agatha, and Shamus awards

  LOS ANGELES NOIR

  edited by Denise Hamilton

  360 pages, trade paperback original, $15.95 *A Los Angeles Timesbest seller and winner of an Edgar Award.

  Brand new stories by: Michael Connelly, Janet Fitch, Susan Straight, Héctor Tobar, Patt Morrison, Robert Ferrigno, Neal Pollack, Gary Phillips, Christopher Rice, Naomi Hirahara, Jim Pascoe, and others.

  “Akashic is making an argument about the universality of noir; it’s sort of flattering, really, and Los Angeles Noir,arriving at last, is a kaleidoscopic collection filled with the ethos of noir pioneers Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain.”

  —Los Angeles Times Book Review

  HAVANA NOIR

  edited by Achy Obejas

  360 pages, trade paperback original, $15.95

  Brand new stories by:Leonardo Padura, Pablo Medina, Carolina García-Aguilera, Ena Lucía Portela, Miguel Mejides, Arnaldo Correa, Alex Abella, Moisés Asís, Lea Aschkenas, and others.

  “A remarkable collection … Throughout these 18 stories, current and former residents of Havana—some well-known, some previously undiscovered—deliver gritty tales of depravation, depravity, heroic perseverance, revolution, and longing in a city mythical and widely misunderstood.”—Miami Herald

  TRINIDAD NOIR

  edited by Lisa Allen-Agostini & Jeanne Mason

  340 pages, trade paperback original, $15.95

  Brand new stories by:Robert Antoni, Elizabeth Nunez, Lawrence Scott, Oonya Kempadoo, Ramabai Espinet, Shani Mootoo, Kevin Baldeosingh, elisha efua bartels, Tiphanie Yanique, Willi Chen, and others.

  “For sheer volume, few—anywhere—can beat [V.S.] Naipaul’s prodigious output. But on style, the writers in the Trinidadian canon can meet him eye to eye … Trinidad is no one-trick pony, literarily speaking.”—Coeditor Lisa Allen-Agostini in the New York Times

  These books are available at local bookstores.

  They can also be purchased online through www.akashicbooks.

  To order by mail send a check or money order to:

  AKASHIC BOOKS

  PO Box 1456, New York, NY 10009

  www.akashicbooks.com, [email protected]

  (Prices include shipping. Outside the U.S., add $8 to each book ordered.)

  Table of Contents

  Cover Page

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Table of Contents

  Introduction

  PART I: CITY OF LIGHTS, CITY OF DARKNESS

  MARC VILLARD : Les Halles

  The Chauffeur

  CHANTAL PELLETIER : Ménilmontant

  The Chinese Guy

  SALIM BACHI : Quartier Latin

  Big Brother

  JÉRÔME LEROY : Gare du Nord

  Berthet’s Leaving

  PART II: LIBERATION LOST

  LAURENT MARTIN : Place de la Nation

  Like a Tragedy

  CHRISTOPHE MERCIER : Pigalle

  Christmas

  JEAN-BERNARD POUY : Le Marais

  The Revenge of the Waiters

  DOMINIQUE MAINARD : Belleville

  La Vie en Rose

  PART III: SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE

  DIDIER DAENINCKX : Porte Saint-Denis

  Rue des Degrés

  PATRICK PÉCHEROT : Les Batignolles

  Dead Memory

  DOA : Bastille

  Precious

  HERVÉ PRUDON : Rue de la Santé

  No ComprendoThe Stranger

  About the Contributors