I don’t know many authors who are as prolific as Amélie Nothomb. Since her first novel, Hygiene and the Assassin, was published in 1992, she published another 36 or more. I’ve read her first and one of her newer ones, Barbe Bleu, which I reviewed here. I always meant to get back to her and finally chose The Stranger Next Door, as I’ve come across a really appealing review on Guy’s blog here. The Stranger Next Door is one of her earlier novels, her fifth to be precise, published 1995.
The Hazels are happily married and like nothing better than solitude and being with each other. Emile Hazel has just retired from his job as Latin and Greek teacher. The Hazels are looking forward to their retirement. The only thing that’s missing is the perfect house in a perfect location, far away from any other people. Luckily, they find that house. The HOUSE. It’s amazing and in such a beautiful landscape. The next village is miles away. There is a neighbour, a doctor, so that too, is perfect. On their first day, it starts to snow, and they enjoy a wonderful walk. When they come back, they look forward to an evening of peace and quiet but at 4pm sharp, someone knocks on the door. It is their neighbour. They are not too keen on being disturbed like this but what can they do? They ask him in, and he stays for a full two hours hardly talking, looking morose, and clearly not enjoying his stay. Glad when the visit is finally over, they don’t want to think about it anymore, but at 4pm sharp, the next day, they have to as their neighbour repeats his visit. And the next day. And the day after. He comes at 4pm and leaves at 6pm, every time demanding coffee, not talking, and only answering with yes or no or not at all. It’s like a sinister groundhog day.
I often wonder if Amélie Nothomb is one of those authors who begin their stories with a “What if” question. It seems that’s exactly what she did here. What if you were living in a wonderful house, and suddenly someone turns up stubbornly every day at the same time, even though he doesn’t seem to enjoy it? What would a polite, cowardly person do?
The intrusion of their neighbour triggers all sorts of feelings and finally also reactions in them. At first, they are just helpless. How does one handle a situation like this without being rude? After a while, being rude is the least of their problems. As this story progresses and the doctor’s wife, a grotesquely obese woman, is introduced as well, it becomes more and more sinister.
This is a dark little novel with bizarre and grotesque elements and an outcome that’s quite unforeseeable. I literally couldn’t put it down. I needed to know where this was going. It’s told from the point of view of Emile Hazel and to see his polished surface crack and a new character emerge is fascinating. And also relatable. Haven’t we all, at times, felt that we should have said no earlier? That we were too nice, too polite? Most of the times, it won’t end like it does here but very often, we too might have felt – enough is enough.
If you like dark and twisted stories, you might enjoy this.
Beauty is a Sleeping Cat 
Sounds wonderfully dark, Caroline. And what a prolific author! 😀
Very dark. She’s so prolific. Her books are all short, still.
Whoa! I like dark books like this one, and they help when we are thwarted by reading slumps. I am also a fan of titles which are plain, and say something about the story already. I have been adding most of your recommendations to my TBR, Caroline, and like a dog, who eagerly waits to catch the daily newspaper thrown at her by the paperboy, I seem to wait for your beautiful posts. Your discipline inspires me. Thank you, again, for the recommendation.
Thank you so much, Deepika. I’m actually surprised by myself. This month is almost over. This is a good book to fight a reading slump.
The dig waiting for the paper. Such a cute picture.
She’s like Joyce Carol Oates, isn’t she? A book a year like clockwork, and sometimes even more than that. I’ve read some but not all, obviously, and I haven’t read this one. Sounds quite intriguing!
I forgot about Joyce Carol Oates. And she even writes big chunky books.
I’ll have to read some more of Nothomb’s books to see if and how she changed over the years. This is definitely a good one.
This made my best-of-year list. It’s great
I remember. It’s really good. Thanks for reviewing it.
This looks wonderful, Caroline! Can’t wait to find out what happens next! I haven’t read Amélie Nothomb yet, but have one of her novels in my bookshelf. It is amazing that she has written 36 books already! So prolific! Thanks for sharing your thoughts 🙂
She’s admirable. Which one do you have? I hope you’ll enjoy it. This was so different really wondered where she’d go with this story.
The one I have is called Metaphysique des tubes. I have the French edition and so I am waiting for the right time to read it 🙂
I’ve heard of that one. It got a lot of praise.
So nice to know that 🙂 Looking forward to reading it soon. Need to brush up my French first 🙂
🙂
This sounds intriguing. I read and enjoyed Amelie Nothomb’s work some years ago and it sounds as if this would be a good one to see what she’s doing now. Thank you.
My pleasure. It’s rather good but it’s actually and older book. I need to read some of her newer books as well.
Sounds wonderfully dark and twisted. As a fan of Shirley Jackson’s fiction, I suspect I would like this. How does this fit with the rest of this author’s oeuvre? Is it fairly typical of her work, would you say?
Very typical, I’d say. I have only read three but they were all dark. Guy compared this to a Pascal Garnier novel. I’d even go as far and say she has a bit of Muriel Spark but for some reason this really worked for me. The Shirley Jackson comparison might be apt as well but I have still not read her so it’s hard to say.
She sounds hugely prolific! This is very appealing – what a clever premise, as you say, we can all think of situations we should have stopped earlier but were too polite to do anything.
It is a great premise. It’s terrible when people overstay their welcome. She’s crazy prolific. Any of her books would be a great choice for another novella a day month.