Books by Amelie Nothomb

The author of Fear and Trembling serves up a fascinating novel about memory and early childhood, delving deeply into the secret life of an infant on verge of sensual discovery.

A hapless young Western woman spends a year toiling in a Japanese company, making one terrible cultural blunder after another as she struggles to survive in an unfamiliar environment. By the author of The Stranger Next Door and Loving Sabotage.

Written by the daughter of a French diplomat and based loosely on her own experiences, this is the amusing tale of a little girl in Communist China in the 1970s.

Emile and Juliette Hazel have just purchased what will be their final home, set in a little clearing an hour's drive from the nearest town. Here, they think, is the place for an idyllic retirement, isolated from the rest of the world save for one neighbor, a doctor, on the far side of the clearing. One day, after they have spent a week in the house, the Hazels' new neighbor comes knocking at their door. Narrated by Emile, this simple story of social obligation yields with impending menace to a deeper exploration of the dangerous cost of restraint. With the peculiar logic of a dream, the doctor continues, unbidden, to visit his neighbors daily. And as he does so, the seed of disquiet in the Hazels' parlor bursts into full horror as Emile is forced to come to grips not only with the stranger next door but also with his own inner darkness.

Tired of reality shows, the television audience wants blood. One day, while out taking a walk in the Jardin des Plantes, Pannonique is piled into a cattle-truck. It seems, anyone can be picked up and hauled off to the studio without a notice. This book tells the story of this reality TV death camp which has become the nation's obsession.

In this sensual and complex literary romance, Amelie, an English teacher, falls into a relationship with her student: an older, wealthy, and shy Japanese man.