Twenty Minutes of Silence

Synopsis

Inspired by a real crime, Twenty Minutes of Silence begins with a murder: a wealthy husband and father has been shot with his own gun. Yet rather than unfolding as a conventional detective novel, Hélène Bessette turns the mystery inside out. The twenty minutes it takes the family to summon help become a space where memory, suspicion, grief, and hidden resentments collide, transforming a familiar crime story into something far stranger and more psychologically revealing.

Written in Bessette's distinctive poetic prose, the novel shifts fluidly between voices and perspectives, dismantling traditional narrative while exposing the quiet violence beneath bourgeois family life. Hypnotic, formally inventive, and unlike anything else in twentieth-century French literature, Twenty Minutes of Silence confirms Bessette's reputation as one of France's great rediscovered literary innovators.

About the Author

Hélène Bessette (1918–2000) published thirteen novels with Gallimard between 1953 and 1973 and was twice shortlisted for both the Prix Goncourt and the Prix Médicis. Championed by writers including Raymond Queneau and Marguerite Duras, she developed what she called the "poetic novel," a radically original form that blended fiction, lyricism, and psychological insight. After years of neglect, her work has been rediscovered as one of the most distinctive achievements of postwar French literature. This edition is translated by Kate Briggs, the award-winning translator and author of This Little Art and The Long Form.

Publisher

New Directions Publishing

Publication Date

July 14, 2026

Format

Paperback

Pages

160

Subjects

Literary Fiction · Fiction in Translation · French Literature · Experimental Fiction · Psychological Fiction · Mystery

ISBN

9780811240369