Cedric Fabre

I've had this ER book for quite a while, part of that stack I spoke of before in this thread. Reading these 14 stories may prevent me from ever going to Marseille.

On the other hand, I feel like I've already been there. The vivid squalor described in these stories, the crime, mainly drug smuggling, prostitution and murder, the feeling of heat and wet and grit are all palpable. The infamous Chateau d'If is just off the coast, and you can see Marseille from the prison. Imagine Edmund Dantes staring at the city from his prison cell!

Each of the 14 stories is set in one of the villages comprising the city, but the international population is everywhere; immigrants from the Comoros and other African countries, Europeans who strayed into Marseille with romantic notions and got caught in its poverty and disillusionment. In a way these stories are intimate: a boy is mesmerized by four crazy sisters on his street, a woman takes the last ferry to an island in the archipelago that stretches out from the bay, carrying on a conversation by herself, people carry out revenge or don't, another man is tormented by the music from across the narrow street. In spite of the bright Mediterranean and the nearby beaches, these stories are truly noir.… (mere)

I'm a big Jean-Claude Izzo fan and have read his deeply moving and compelling neo noir "Marseille Trilogy" more than one. This collection is like having a bit more of him to read, though not exactly but close enough. What more can I say? Yes, these all-well-written stories make you wonder if you ever want to spend time in Marseille--and if you did end up there you couldn't help but be privy to hidden lifestyle that lay just a scratch below the surface of the quotidian.
So far I've read Noir from this series--Pittsburgh,Mumbai--and they are delightful & dark. Marseille Noir is just another dark beautiful feather in Akashic Books hat.… (mere)