The Novel of Marceau Miller

Original title: Le roman de Marceau Miller

Author: Miller, Marceau

Publication Date:

January 2025

Pages:

400

Original language and publisher

Territories Handled

Worldwide excl. French

Territories Sold

Italy (Einaudi Stile Libero, in a 7-way auction)
Spanish (World) (Maeva, in a preempt)
Netherlands (Xander, at auction)
Germany (Suhrkamp/Insel, in a 4-way auction)
Portugal (LeYa/Casa das Letras, in a preempt)
English (World) (Blackstone Publishing, in a preempt)
Russia (Corpus, at auction)
Arabic (HBKU University Press)
South Korea (offer received)

Genre

Crime & Thrillers

Number of copies sold:

22,000 in print

The Novel of Marceau Miller

Original title: Le roman de Marceau Miller

Author: Miller, Marceau

Synopsis

“We loved the way the author portrayed all the characters, their secrets, their anguish. We loved the dreamed setting on the lake. We loved the spellbinding plot. We devoured the book in a few hours, telling each other that this novel is one of the most captivating books that we have recently read. With the intensity of the writing, the narrative that shoots the reader right into the mystery, Le Roman de Marceau Miller will be the perfect leading title of our publishing house next year.”—Angela Tranfo, Editorial Director, Einaudi Stile Libero

“This highly effective novel can be devoured in one sitting. It tells the story of Marceau Miller, a successful writer who falls while climbing in the French Alps and never recovers. Was it an accident? His wife Sarah is convinced otherwise. All the more so as her husband left behind a final manuscript that she must track down if she is to know the truth. What follows is a fast-paced 400-page investigation that doesn’t leave the reader a minute’s peace.” — Sandrine Bajos, Le Parisien

“Presented at the last Frankfurt Book Fair, publishers spotted the potential of this “page-turner” set near Lake Geneva, based on a manuscript left by a novelist after his death, in which he reveals all the lies that built his success.” — Livres Hebdo

“In the mysterious writer Marceau Miller’s book ‘Le roman de Marceau Miller’, a character recounts his secret escapades called Manureva, not knowing at first that this was the name of the yacht in which Colas disappeared without a trace on November 16, 1978, off the Azores.” — Le Journal du Centre

  • THE 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair sensation, as covered in Publishing Perspectives and Livres Hebdo (French)
  • A finely-written novel and a real page-turner, with engaging characters, a spellbinding landscape, and a captivating, suspenseful plot.
  • An eminently talented author, who has experience as a screenwriter and a novelist

In the splendid and dangerous landscapes of Lake Geneva, under the shadow of the surrounding mountains, a renowned writer dies, leaving a manuscript behind. His name is Marceau Miller. His life was built on a lie. His last novel will be his confession. Marceau Miller’s novel plays with the reader, drawing on touching characters and a spellbinding setting. It asks what our lives, friendships, and loves are worth when the truth changes sides. And above all: who is Marceau Miller?

Some people constantly put their lives on the line. Marceau Miller is one of them. Haunted by the memory of his sister, who disappeared twenty years earlier, he has become an acclaimed writer and is married with two children.

In short, he has built a dream life. But the writer defies danger, whether it’s riding his old Savage Bobber or climbing Lake Geneva’s treacherous rock walls with his bare hands, until his final plunge that opens the novel. At the summit of the dent du Vélan, which Marceau has climbed so many times, a figure contemplates his inert body down below.

Days go by and Marceau’s wife Sarah still doesn’t know what has happened. But the writer has planted clues: he has left a manuscript in a Swiss bank safe for his wife and his two best friends to find. Is it a treasure hunt to play on their pain? Marceau denies and claims: “I just didn’t know any other way. As a writer, it was both my way out and my condemnation.”

At the end of this quest, Sarah will perhaps have the last word about the dramas on which Marceau Miller has built his successes.