A year of bones, of grave-dirt, relentless work. Of mummified
corpses and chanting priests.
A year of rape, suicide, sudden death. Of friendship too. Of desire. Of love...
A year unlike any other he has lived.
Deep in the heart of Paris, its oldest cemetery is, by
1785, overflowing, tainting the very breath of those who live nearby. Into their
midst comes Jean-Baptiste Baratte, a young, provincial engineer charged by the
king with demolishing it.A year of rape, suicide, sudden death. Of friendship too. Of desire. Of love...
A year unlike any other he has lived.
At first Baratte sees this as a chance to clear the burden of history, a fitting task for a modern man of reason. But before long, he begins to suspect that the destruction of the cemetery might be a prelude to his own.
A strange topic for a book but I have so enjoyed reading this historical novel by Andrew Miller. Pure fiction - I can see why it won the Costa Book of the Year (2011)
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