Quand Morris Schutt, éminent chroniqueur, passe en revue l'année qui vient de s'écouler, il ne voit que des catastrophes. Son fils a été tué en Afghanistan, sa femme, psychiatre de renom, s'éloigne de plus en plus de lui, une de ses filles semble avoir une liaison avec son professeur, et son journal l'a mis en congé pour une durée indéterminée. Que doit faire un homme qui pense, si ce n'est se tourner vers les grands philosophes, en quête des moyens d'être heureux? À moins de prendre contact avec une de ces discrètes « agences de rencontre » ? Ou d'entreprendre une liaison épistolaire avec une femme qui a, elle aussi, perdu son fils à la guerre? Mais trouver la vérité et le bonheur, comme va le constater Morris, n'est pas chose simple... Dans ce roman à la fois mélancolique et mordant, le canadien David Bergen, l'auteur d'Un passé envahi d'ombres et de Loin du monde, dissèque la vie d'un homme à un moment critique de sa vie, et s'impose comme un formidable interprète des complexités de l'âme humaine. « Lumineux, intelligent, provocateur et émouvant. Sans doute le meilleur livre de David Bergen. » The Edmonton Journal

In this brilliant existential portrayal of identity, David Bergen introduces Esther Maile, an expat American living in Thailand in a house rented by the richer, more popular Christine. While on holiday in Bali, Christine is caught by an ocean wave and drowns. Esther rushes to save her, but in the chaos that ensues, the police arrive and confuse Esther for Christine. For someone who would prefer to be anyone but herself, this is the perfect solution - no matter the consequences. When a local Thai police captain, Net Wantok, begins to investigate Christine's death and seeks out Esther, he is caught between his curiosity - she is charming, evasive, and flirtatious - and the awareness that people around Esther are disappearing. Sensing danger, Esther acts out of fear and pulls the one person who loves her into her perilous world. Bergen's mesmerizing psychological drama hums with expatriate gossip, sexual tension, unexpected violence, a passion for food, and a woman who, seemingly unhindered by questions of truth or morality, hints at the darkness in all of us.

Longlisted, Scotiabank Giller Prize Violence is the domain of both the rich and poor. Or so it seems in early 20th-century Ukraine during the tumult of the Russian Revolution. As anarchists, Bolsheviks, and the White Army all come and go, each claiming freedom and justice, David Bergen embeds his readers into the lives of characters connected through love, family, and loyalty. Lehn, a bookseller south of Kiev, deserts the army and writes poetry to his love back home; Sablin, an adopted Mennonite-Ukrainian stableboy, runs with the anarchists only to discover that love and the planting of crops is preferable to killing; Inna, a beautiful young peasant, tries to stop a Mennonite landowner from stealing her child. In a world of violence, Sablin, Lehn, and Inna learn to love and hate and love again, hoping, against all odds, that one can turn away from the dead. In this beautifully crafted novel, David Bergen takes us to a place where chaos reigns, where answers come from everywhere and nowhere, and where both the beauty and horror of humanity are on full display.

Winner, McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award One of 49th Shelf's Books of the YearIn Out of Mind, David Bergen delves into the psyche of Lucille Black, mother, grandmother, lover, psychiatrist, and analyst of self, who first appeared in Bergen's bestselling novel The Matter with Morris. Although adept at probing the lives of others, Lucille has become untethered, caught between duty and desire, between the demands of family and her own longing.Her ex-husband Morris betrays her by publishing a memoir about the aftermath of their son Martin's death in Afghanistan. She travels to Thailand to attempt to extricate her youngest daughter from the clutches of an apparent cult leader. And she is invited to the south of France to attend the marriage of a man whom she rejected a year earlier. Negotiating with herself about her altered role in the lives of her family and friends, Lucille circles the globe - and herself.In this brilliant and subtle evocation of vulnerability and loss, Bergen traces one woman's quest to reform her identity, reminding us that the unexpected is always lying in wait.