The Stranger Next Door: Amazon.co.uk: Amelie Nothomb, Carol Volk: Books

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by Amelie Nothomb

4.0 out of 5 stars (1) �7.36

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When Emile and Juliette Hazel move into their new, secluded home to enjoy retirement, their peace is interrupted by the daily visits of the bizarre man who is their only neighbor.

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7 Reviews

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4.3 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Stranger is sometimes closer than next door, 29 April 1998

By A Customer

U.S. publishers apparently have a plan to make Americans believe that all French writers are obsessed with Strangers -- that is, outsiders who live according to codes or manners beyond the bounds of that which most of us consider Normal. After all, we're familiar with Camus' L'Etranger, Gide, Genet and Celine. So Amelia Nothomb's THE STRANGER NEXT DOOR shouldn't strike us as so -- strange. Like Duras, Saurraute and other excellent French writers who've taken to heart the lessons of trimmed-down prose provided by THE GREAT GATSBY and early Hemingway, Nothomb tells an engaging story in a brief 150 pages. Through a series of encounters with the very odd couple living next door, the narrator -- Emile -- learns that he does not know himself so well as he had imagined. Eventually the strangers next door reveal to him the Stranger that lives within himself. Nothomb tells her tale so simply, the reader may have a tendency to shrug and say the story is completely unbelievable. However, the simplicity belies the probability and enhances the creepiness of the story. I'm reminded of the apparently illogical incidents that occur in Cornell Woolrich's stories: Incidents that simultaneously appear inevitable thanks to his direct prose and the world it builds. The horror resulting from those events is still horror; if such occurrences weren't inexplicable, would we still shudder? In THE STRANGER NEXT DOOR, Nothomb displays a great talent for pinpointing the terrors we hide internally. I look forward to reading more from her pen.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More scary than all the "Blair Witch" of the world, 22 Feb 2001

By A Customer

Amelie Nothomb treats her French speaking audience (just to answer the comment of the person from Las Vegas, she is actually Belgian...)each year with a new novel. This one is a beauty: scary without being gorish, written in a simple but efficient style, and making you look at your neighbours in quite a different way. Let's hope her other books will get translated soon, they're all not only brilliant, but also very different from each other, which is very rare nowadays.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a delightfully entertaining comedy of characters, 23 May 1998

By A Customer

Amelie Nothomb has created a story whose characters carry the plot along. A retired couple exhile themselves to a house in the woods for what they hope will be an uneventful passing of their final days. Soon enough however, they discover that their neighbor, the town doctor, is a terrible nuisance. The Stranger Next Door depicts the struggles of the couple as they battle to come to an understanding of their neighbor and his wife. The descriptions are wonderfully amusing and unlike any most readers might have come across.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars More scary than all the "Blair Witch" of the world
Amelie Nothomb treats her French speaking audience (just to answer the comment of the person from Las Vegas, she is actually Belgian...)each year with a new novel. Read more

Published on 22 Feb 2001

1.0 out of 5 stars some things are best left untranslated
This book has no beauty in it at all. Not in description or characters. Now I know why the French are so miserabl�s.

Published on 28 Dec 1998

5.0 out of 5 stars a delightfully entertaining comedy of characters
Amelie Nothomb has created a story whose characters carry the plot along. A retired couple exhile themselves to a house in the woods for what they hope will be an uneventful... Read more

Published on 23 May 1998

5.0 out of 5 stars True horror without a supernatural being in sight
When Emile Hazel retires from teaching, he and his spouse Juliette move to an isolated home in Southern France. Read more

Published on 13 Jan 1998

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The Stranger Next Door (Hardcover)

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