The Crime of Count Neville (2015)

The Crime of Count Neville (Le Crime du comte Neville) is Amélie Nothomb’s twenty-fourth Belgian novel, published by Albin Michel.

Amélie’s work has been translated into many languages, including Hindi, Turkish, Flemish, Spanish, Portuguese, German, English, and Italian. Not all of her books have been translated, but it’s enough to make her known around the world.

Just for fun, here is the title of the book in four other languages!

In Flemish: De misdaad van graaf Neville
In Spanish: El Crimen del Conde Neville
In Polish: Zbrodnia hrabiego Neville’a

A title that didn’t make me want to read it…
And yet… it’s one of my favorites! One of those where you wonder: How is she going to finish this story in just two or three pages? And once again… she does it… and I totally love the ending!!! 😀

Amélie Nothomb pays tribute to Oscar Wilde by freely adapting his short story The Crime of Lord Arthur Savile. I don’t know if one or more films have been made based on it. It would be interesting to find out.

Here’s the story: A fortune teller makes a strange prediction to Count Neville: he will murder one of his guests at his next garden party, the last party before the sale of his castle.

And so the scene is set!

What about you? What would you do if a psychic told you that you were going to kill someone in three days? Would you sink into psychosis and paranoia? Would you ask yourself if you really wanted to do it? Would you ask people to tie you up and chain you down on that third day to prevent any tragedy from occurring? Or would you give free rein to your wickedness and sadism?

Whatever the case, Count Neville will have to face this revelation and make a decision. What will his be?