“The Accident on the A35” has been described as "unflashy yet highly accomplished" by The Guardian, "a very nice piece of craftsmanship" by The Scotsman and "one of the most clever and compelling novels to be published this year" by The Herald. It has been selected for French Elle Magazine’s readers’ prize in September 2018.
19, 20 & 21 October 2018
His third novel opens with the enticing line "There did not appear to be anything remarkable about the accident on the A35". A green Mercedes has driven off the road and the driver, an austere middle-aged lawyer, has been killed. He was part of Saint-Louis’ bourgeoisie and left behind a much younger, attractive but reclusive wife, a teenage son and a stern busy-body housekeeper. Gorski is dogged by the question of where the lawyer had been on the night of the accident. Somewhat attracted to the victim’s attractive wife, and keen to impress the Strasbourg detective who is investigating a murder of a woman that took place on the same night, he sets out to solve a mystery that may not even exist.
Graeme Macrae Burnet grew up in Kilmarnock in Ayrshire and, after spells living in Czech Republic, France, Portugal and London, he has now settled in Glasgow.
Graeme will talk about his French-set literary crime novels, both clever, compelling and multi-layered stories in the dreary provincial town of Saint-Louis. In his debut, “The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau”, we meet Detective Georges Gorski, haunted by his failure to solve his first murder case. When Adele, a waitress in an unremarkable local bistro disappears, Gorski’s attention falls on one of the regular customers, Manfred, a socially awkward loner. The book was a cult hit and won him a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award.
Copyright Festilitt 2018
Graeme Burnet: The Disappearance of Adele Bedeau & The Accident on the A35
Sunday 21st October
16h00 Salle des fêtes
Festival Dinner
Continue the conversations over dinner with the authors on Saturday night and get to know the people behind the books.
More info coming soon
Whats On...
the Parisot literary festival
Priority reservations for Festilitt friends
Festival Opening
Friday 19th Oct 19h00
Join us for a relaxed and convivial apéro dinatôire to kick off our sixth festival in style.
Book Sale
There will be book sales and signings at the end of each session.
You can also buy a selection of books by participating authors throughout the weekend at our bookshop
Graeme’s novel “His Bloody Project” was shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize and the LA Times Mystery Book of the Year and won him the Satire Prize for Fiction and the Vrij Nederland Thriller of the Year. A highly original book, it purports to share the ‘found’ memoirs of an unusually articulate and intelligent 17-year old crofter who is awaiting trial for 3 brutal murders in his village in the 1860s. The book won Graeme a much-coveted place on the Man Booker shortlist in 2016. It has been variously described as “astonishing”, “fiendishly readable” and “spellbinding” and is set to be translated into around 20 languages.