In a family home in the north of France, a crime has been committed. But a crime of what order? Who exactly is the victim and who, if anyone, is the criminal? In Twenty Minutes of Silence, Hélène Bessette unleashes a polyphonic investigation, multiplying perspectives, contradictions, questions and doubts. Everything in this high-octane drama is subject to change, including the lighting and the basic facts of the case. Composed in her signature poetic prose style, Bessette’s novella builds a world punctured by startling disruptions and unexpected shifts, and in doing so destroys and remakes the crime novel, creating a form wholly new. Devastating and exuberant, Twenty Minutes of Silence is a vital interrogation of the powerlessness of childhood, the compromises of adulthood, and the conventions of the novel itself.
‘This riveting translation at once slays and reinvents the mystery genre…. The titular concept of silence, purportedly about the accomplices’ erasure of evidence, in fact represents a linguistic and structural red herring. The articulate, seemingly uncounseled testimonies of the deceased’s adulterous wife and abused son, along with biased speculations by the chief inspector, his deputy, the journalists and the bookseller, are replete with operatic revelations.’
— Thúy Đinh, NPR
‘Twenty Minutes of Silence is an impressive example of what Bessette can do with form and language, giving primacy to individual speech while also denying the idea that there’s ever a singular “I,” and always teasing out the reader’s attention and laughter…. Stripping the narrative down to its one-and-many voices, all blended and overlapping, is a mirror of how we account for the world today—with all its truths and mysteries.’
— Hannah Weber, Words Without Borders
