Lisa - OwlBeSatReading 's Reviews > Pharricide

’This fucking lighthouse, there’s no telling what it’ll make me do next’.

After two DNF’s on the trot I knew it was time to change direction in terms of genre and what a sinister road I took! So, my first in French literature and what a strange and twisted little tale! Told in diary entries, it is gruesome, intelligent and, at times, perverse.

’I was less enthusiastic about my mother preparing them [crayfish] for Monsieur Rouleau. He gobbled up half my portion, the bastard. He said they weren’t for children, that they would give me an itchy bum’.

Pharricide is a darkly funny, deeply disturbing story about a lighthouse keeper who has a taste for taxidermy, murder, and well-seasoned crayfish. He slowly descends into an uncontrollable madness stemming from his strange past and this is boosted by his current loneliness. ‘Me time’ for Geoffroy Lefayen does him no favours.

’One, two, three, four things, I counted in my head. Plus the kid. Three men, a blind person and a kid. Two strapping lads, an upstart, a disabled person and a simpleton. I had to stop myself looking at my cleaver, which I knew was hanging up, just like a regular cleaver, above the tap.’

On investigating the word ‘Pharricide’ I found absolutely nothing, the closest I got was ‘Parricide’ meaning ‘the killing of a parent or other near relative’. Maybe the title has been lost in translation or perhaps the ‘ph’ is the French version of the word. I’m not sure. Anyway, it doesn’t matter, because UK based publisher, ‘Confingo’ found a nasty little gem of a book here, brilliantly translated by Nicholas Royle. I’ll be browsing their website to see what other dark delights they have to offer.

’Killing isn’t so terrible. Dying may be, but killing…’

Recommended reading if you enjoy books like American Psycho.

5⭐️ - Brilliant. I loved it.