Days of Feasting and Rejoicing
by David Bergen
You must sign in to see if this title is available for request. Sign In or Register Now
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date May 12 2026 | Archive Date May 26 2026
Talking about this book? Use #DaysofFeastingandRejoicing #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!
Description
Days of Feasting and Rejoicing is a haunting literary crime novel by award-winning author David Bergen
When her friend Christine drowns under suspicious circumstances, Esther Maile—who has always longed to be someone else—slips almost effortlessly into Christine’s life. With a new name, easy access to money, and the attention of Christine’s former lover, the transformation feels natural.
Until it isn’t.
When it becomes unclear whether Christine’s death was truly an accident, Captain Net Wantok, a weary Thai police officer, begins to investigate. A trail of accidents and missing people all lead back to Esther. Drawn in by her beauty and uncanny resemblance to his own missing daughter, Captain Wantok finds his judgment clouded as his pursuit of the truth grows increasingly personal.
In Days of Feasting and Rejoicing, innocence and guilt blur together, and the question of who Esther Maile truly is—and what she is capable of—is the most chilling mystery.
Advance Praise
“A new Bergen is always reason to celebrate.”
--Louise Penny, New York Times bestselling author of the Inspector Gamache series
“David Bergen’s new novel is a tightly wound thriller with a monstrous protagonist who induces equal amounts of horror and admiration. It’s a hell of a tightrope-walk that brings to mind the best of Patricia Highsmith.”
--Michael Redhill, award-winning author of Bellevue Square
“Taut, engrossing, and tense, Days of Feasting and Rejoicing is a fine-tuned, psychologically nuanced suspense story that offers so much more than most literary, crime thrillers, even those twice as long. Expertly crafted and impossible to put down.”
--Iain Reid, award-winning author of I’m Thinking of Ending Things
“Days of Feasting and Rejoicing smartly renews the story of dark reinvention we associate with Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley novels and Antonioni’s The Passenger. With his typical elegance, David Bergen compellingly moves us through disquiet, moral tension, high drama, and the fully human dilemmas of chief inspector Net Wantok, and into the killing mind of Esther Maile. The novel beautifully plays the desire for release against the impossibility of true escape.”
--Michael Helm, author of Cities of Refuge
Marketing Plan
- Award-winning author David Bergen
- National publicity campaign
- National print and digital ad campaign
- Targeted outreach to literary crime and thriller publications and influencers
- Social media campaign
- Book club outreach and marketing campaign
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9798228670228 |
| PRICE | $29.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 224 |
Available on NetGalley
Average rating from 1 member
Featured Reviews
Mike D, Reviewer
Gender-flipped retellings are all the rage these days, and Bergen jumps on the bandwagon rather nicely with what's essentially a tale of a female Ripley.
Esther Maile isn't a particularly talented Ms. Ripley, unless you count her knack for languages. But she manages to fall into murder and pretending to be other people all the same. She's a murky kind of protagonist, with not a lot of interiority to explain herself. The most that can be gleamed is that she's sexually repressed and potentially a lesbian. And yet, her trajectory is oddly compelling.
It's likely down to the author's writing style, which features short, simple brushstrokes creating fairly complex canvases. The kind of style that has the immediacy to pull the reader in. Even though there isn't a lot of interiority for any of the characters, really, it is cleverly implied.
There is also the matter of location as a character, which Bergen does very well with mainly Thailand and some Bali. The exotic otherness of the places serves the story nicely, highlighting the isolation of the North American characters.
I'm not sure if I've ever read the author, but I'd be interested to check out more of his work based on this book.
All in all, an entertaining journey to the other side of the world and into the mind of a psychopath. With a lovely, subtle nod to the original Ripley in the end.
Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.