Reviewing: Patrick Modiano's INVISIBLE INK
There are some books that our booksellers just can’t stop gushing about, so this review series is dedicated to spotlighting the titles we love! For the second review of the series, Danni Green reviews Patrick Modiano’s latest work to appear in English, Invisible Ink, translated by Mark Polizzotti.
Patrick Modiano’s most recent novel Invisible Ink, the tenth translated by Mark Polizzotti, follows private detective Jean Eybre. More than three decades later, Jean recounts the strange details of the life of a woman who became more and more enigmatic the more Jean looked into her. Jean retraces his steps around the Seine, he visits cafes, and he consults the notes he kept at the time of the investigation to see if they spark any new leads or memories. As is the case with most of Modiano’s novels the thrust of the story is work remembering.
This novel features what readers have come to adore about the Nobel Laureate’s work: a past ensconced in the shadows, characters of inscrutable intentions, and a Paris brimming with seediness. In the hands of Modiano, Paris is transformed from the city of love and lights to a playground for criminals, liars, and people wandering in search of something that rests just outside of their grasp.
From the first page, longtime readers will notice the Hutte Agency as the same agency that the protagonist of his previous novel Missing Person worked for. Although this novel shares many similarities with his previous ones, Modiano gives an ending that new readers will doubtlessly laud while avid readers will find wholly original and fitting.
Invisible Ink by Patrick Modiano was published on October 27, 2020 by Yale University Press.
