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Perlmann's Silence
Perlmann's Silence
Perlmann's Silence
Ebook790 pages30 hours

Perlmann's Silence

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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An academic finds himself contemplating the unthinkable in a “tour de force” psychological thriller by the philosopher and author of Night Train to Lisbon (De Volkskrant, Netherlands).

Pascal Mercier’s critically acclaimed debut novel, Night Train to Lisbon, became an international bestseller and the basis for a film starring Jeremy Irons. Now, in Perlmann’s Silence, Mercier delivers a deft psychological portrait of a man striving to get his life back on track in the wake of his beloved wife’s death.

Philipp Perlmann, prominent linguist and speaker at a gathering of international academics in a seaside town near Genoa, is struggling to maintain his grip on reality. Derailed by grief and no longer confident of his professional standing, writing his keynote address seems like an insurmountable task. Terrified of failure, he decides to plagiarize the work of Leskov, a Russian colleague, and breathes a sigh of relief once the text has been submitted. But when Leskov’s imminent arrival is announced, Perlmann’s mounting desperation leads him to contemplate drastic measures.

A captivating portrait of a slowly unraveling mind, Perlmann’s Silence is a brilliant meditation on the complex interplay between language, memory, and the depths of the human psyche.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJan 3, 2012
ISBN9780802194862
Author

Pascal Mercier

A professor of philosophy, Pascal Mercier was born in 1944 in Bern, Switzerland, and currently lives in Berlin.

Read more from Pascal Mercier

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Rating: 3.6144578313253013 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

83 ratings3 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    tense, strong, descriptive. I so much hated the guy Perlmann, that I almost stopped reading - but the book was compelling enough to read through.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    to be honest I was disappointed in this novel. I loved Night Train to Lisbon, and was very excited to see a new English novel by Pascal Mercier. The main character, Perlmann, a college teacher had just lost his wife, he is in deep grief, is asked to organize a conference. He is unable to come up with paper so he decides to use a paper written by a Russian, thinking that person would never know. of course the Russian ends up at the conference. The novel is about Perlmann's angust, for far to many pages. At first I liked him, at the end not so much
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Audio. Intersting subject. Some suspense and twists. Good writing style.

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Perlmann's Silence - Pascal Mercier

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