An intimate, haunting novel about the invisible bonds that survive betrayal and death. 

Châteauvieux-sur-l’Aubrac, deep winter. The celebrated Dutch writer Thomas Helder has died at just forty-six. After the funeral, his family and closest friends gather at the remote country house where he spent his childhood summers and where, in the final days of his illness, he chose to return. Among them is Margaux Chanet, Thomas’s oldest friend: a renowned French architect who vanished years earlier without explanation, abandoning the people who loved her most.  

Over the course of a long snowy night, as wine flows and memories surface, old wounds reopen and buried truths begin to emerge. At the center of the gathering is an extraordinary conversation between Margaux and Jorg, Thomas’s enigmatic brother, who tells her of a mysterious cabin on the northern coast of the Netherlands. A place where grief seems to dissolve the boundaries between past and present, living and dead. 

Moving between Amsterdam and the windswept plateaus of the Aubrac, Thomas Helder is a fervent examination of mourning, memory, and the lives we carry within us long after loss—one that reaffirms Muriel Barbery as a singular voice in European literature.  

TARGET CONSUMER
- Readers of elegant, literary fiction by authors such as Robert Seethaler, Kazuo Ishiguro, Sigrid Nunez, Claire Keegan, Andrew Miller, and André Aciman
- Fans of introspective novels centered on grief, memory, friendship, and the lingering presence of the dead
- Readers drawn to European fiction set in atmospheric and evocative landscapes
- Fans of Muriel Barbery’s earlier work, especially The Elegance of the Hedgehog
- Readers of philosophical and emotionally nuanced fiction
- Book club and crossover literary readers interested in novels about intimacy, betrayal, and the ways people remain bound together across time
- For readers who love reading about writers

KEY SELLING POINTS
- Written by internationally bestselling author Muriel Barbery, who has a well-established following and devoted readership (thanks to The Elegance of the Hedgehog) abroad and in the US.
- A compelling novel that unfolds over the course of a single frigid night after the funeral of a celebrated writer
- Explores the invisible ties between the living and the dead through layered conversations and long-buried emotional histories
- Combines psychological realism with an almost dreamlike sense of mystery
- Has a rich setting that pivots between Amsterdam and the stark beauty of the Aubrac, a sweeping plateau in south-central France, creating a very immersive landscape