Double Jeopardy

In this entertaining, superbly-crafted book, Jean Echenoz exhibits the ease with language and character that has earned him an international reputation as an imaginative, ambitious novelist. His remarkable ability to weave strands of a plot with linguistic grace and wry humor is brilliantly displayed in his latest novel Double Jeopardy.

A dizzying cast of Belgian thugs, dissatisfied Malaysian farm workers, and mutinous sailors circulate among the main characters. Here is Charles, a resourceful and civilized wanderer who calls Paris s metro tunnels home, and Jeff, the cunning manager of a Malaysian rubber plantation owned by a dissolute (and unwitting) Jouvin couple. Friends by fate in their unrequited love for Nicole Fischer, chance brings them together again thirty years later, head-long into a plot involving the smuggling of arms to Malaysia and into the hands of Jeff s relentless plantation workers. Bob and Paul (who happens to be Jeff s long-lost nephew) unknowingly double Charles and Jeff in their pursuit of Justine (Nicole s equally aloof daughter), and are drawn into the plot while dodging the menacing Van Os and his band of small-time criminals. Double Jeopardy is as much an entertaining fast-paced read as a richly textured canvas of language, place, and character. Its appearance is sure to confirm Echenoz s reputation as a writer of international importance.

A fast-paced novel involving gun-running, mutiny at sea, and unrequited love all mixed into "an exceptionally appealing concoction". (Booklist)