As they say, it is never too late to start writing. Pierre Lemaitre taught literature for many years before becoming known as a screenwriter and novelist. His crime fiction has brought him the most critical acclaim, not only in his native France but also in Great Britain. THREE DAYS AND A LIFE, the most recent of his work to be published in the United States, demonstrates how ordinary events performed by everyday people can take on a dark power of their own, rippling out of control across time and distance in the most unexpected of ways.

"Lemaitre has the ability to show how a single action or two can send one’s life (and several others) careening off into unexpected directions in the present while rippling into the future."

The book begins in 1999 in the small town of Beauval, France. The premise is simple enough. A 12-year-old boy named Antoine Courtin unintentionally kills his six-year-old neighbor, Remi Desmedt, in the woods. Antoine struck Remi without meaning to kill him or even severely injure him, but that doesn’t make him any less dead. Antoine conceals the body but is plagued by guilt in the hours that follow as Remi’s parents and the people of Beauval realize that the boy is missing. Search parties go looking for him initially, but their efforts are terminated when a pair of violent storms sweep through the area, causing devastation and death. There is only so much that the limited resources of the town can do. Though Remi is not forgotten, the search takes a back seat to dealing with the dead and injured and then rebuilding Beauval.

Antoine vows to leave the town as soon as he is able and never return. He eventually fulfills half of this promise, exiting Beauval to go to medical school but returning sporadically to see his mother. It is during one of these visits in 2011 that the past comes back to decisively haunt him, as a reckless, impulsive action once again has a marked effect on his future. It is ironic that during this particular visit, Remi’s long-hidden body is at last discovered. The irony is not immediately evident but becomes clear as time passes. Antoine’s life is settled by 2015, but it is certainly not how he envisioned it in the best or worst of circumstances as he discovers some truths surrounding the events of the previous years, for better or worse.

THREE DAYS AND A LIFE is a relatively short work --- just a bit under 200 pages --- but there isn’t a wasted word. Lemaitre has the ability to show how a single action or two can send one’s life (and several others) careening off into unexpected directions in the present while rippling into the future. Those encountering Lemaitre for the first time here will want to hunt down his other unique crime novels --- translated, as here, by Frank Wynne --- and hope that his past and future works will see their way to the US in short order.