After his last two novels took place in a distant past, Man Booker Prize-nominated author Patrick deWitt wanted to return to a contemporary setting and also write about the mother-son relationship. The result is "French Exit".
The story in his new book is about Frances Price, a tart widow, possessive mother and Upper East Side force of nature who is in dire straits, beset by scandal.
Her adult son Malcolm is no help, mired in a permanent state of arrested development. And then there's their cat, who Frances believes houses the spirit of her late husband, an infamously immoral lawyer whose gruesome tabloid death rendered them social outcasts.
To put their troubles behind them, the trio cut their losses and head for the exit. Their beloved Paris becomes the backdrop for a giddy drive to self-destruction, helped along by a cast of singularly curious characters: a bashful private investigator, an aimless psychic and Mme. Reynard, friendly American expat and aggressive houseguest.
"French Exit" is billed by publisher Bloomsbury as a one-of-a-kind tragedy of manners, a riotous send-up of high society and a moving story of mothers and sons that is brimming with pathos, warmth and wit.
deWitt says he came to the subject matter and characters of "French Exit" in a roundabout fashion.
He wanted to write about the mother-son relationship, after the son has arrived at adulthood and also about Paris.
After the publication of "The Sisters Brothers", he temporarily re-located to Paris to research a novel he had in mind about a corrupt investment advisor who expatriates to France from the US to avoid prison.
The character has a wife and a son, who suffer as a result of his poor decision. But he had to shelve the idea before he could finish its first draft.
"But the research I had collected was put to use in 'French Exit'. I realised only after the novel was completed that I had written the same story that the discontinued book had meant to tell, but from the point of view of its auxiliary personnel," deWitt says.
"The Sisters Brothers" won the Governor General's Award and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Walter Scott Prize. He also is the author of "Ablutions" and "Undermajordomo Minor".
"The Sisters Brothers" is being adapted for film by Jacques Audiard to star Jake Gyllenhaal, Joaquin Phoenix, Riz Ahmed and John C Reilly for release this year.
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