
Ivory Pearl
Jean-Patrick Manchette(Author)
NYRB Classics (Publisher)
Published on 1. May 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
208 pages
978-1-68137-210-5 (ISBN)
Description
Set in Cuba's Sierra Maestra in the 1950s, in the days leading up to the Revolution--Manchette's unfinished masterpiece with a fearless female protagonist.
Out of the wreckage of World War II swaggers Ivory Pearl, so named (rhymes with girl) by some British soldiers who made her their mascot, a mere kid, orphaned, survivor of God knows what, but fluent in French, English, smoking, and drinking. In Berlin, Ivy meets Samuel Farakhan, a rich closeted intelligence officer. Farakhan proposes to adopt her and help her to become the photographer she wants to be; his relationship to her will provide a certain cover for him. And she is an asset. The deal is struck...
1956: Ivy has seen every conflict the postwar world has on offer, from Vietnam to East Berlin, and has published her photographs in slick periodicals, but she is sick to death of death and bored with life and love. It's time for a break. Ivy heads to Cuba, the Sierra Maestra.
History, however, doesn't take vacations.
Ivory Pearl was Jean-Patrick Manchette's last book, representing a new turn in his writing. It was to be the first of a series of ambitious historical thrillers about the "wrong times" we live in. Though left unfinished when Manchette died, the book, whose full plot has been filled in here from the author's notes, is a masterpiece of bold suspense and black comedy: chilling, caustic, and perfectly choreographed.
Out of the wreckage of World War II swaggers Ivory Pearl, so named (rhymes with girl) by some British soldiers who made her their mascot, a mere kid, orphaned, survivor of God knows what, but fluent in French, English, smoking, and drinking. In Berlin, Ivy meets Samuel Farakhan, a rich closeted intelligence officer. Farakhan proposes to adopt her and help her to become the photographer she wants to be; his relationship to her will provide a certain cover for him. And she is an asset. The deal is struck...
1956: Ivy has seen every conflict the postwar world has on offer, from Vietnam to East Berlin, and has published her photographs in slick periodicals, but she is sick to death of death and bored with life and love. It's time for a break. Ivy heads to Cuba, the Sierra Maestra.
History, however, doesn't take vacations.
Ivory Pearl was Jean-Patrick Manchette's last book, representing a new turn in his writing. It was to be the first of a series of ambitious historical thrillers about the "wrong times" we live in. Though left unfinished when Manchette died, the book, whose full plot has been filled in here from the author's notes, is a masterpiece of bold suspense and black comedy: chilling, caustic, and perfectly choreographed.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
New York Review Books
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 204 mm
Width: 128 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
223 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-68137-210-5 (9781681372105)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Persons
Jean-Patrick Manchette, translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith, introduction by Doug Headline, afterword by Gary Indiana
Author
Afterword
Introduction
Translation