**"Marie NDiaye is a master of creating menacing, off-kilter worlds that
speak to the truth of human experience."--Ayşegül Savaş, author of
*White on White
There is something very wrong with Nadia and her husband Ange,
middle-aged provincial schoolteachers who slowly realize that they are
despised by everyone around them. One day a savage wound appears in
Ange's stomach, and as Nadia fights to save her husband's life their
hideous neighbor Noget--a man everyone insists is a famous
author--inexplicably imposes his care upon them. While Noget fattens
them with ever richer foods, Nadia embarks on a nightmarish visit to her
ex-husband and estranged son--is she abandoning Ange or revisiting old
grievances in an attempt to save him?
Conjuring an atmosphere of paranoia and menace, My Heart Hemmed In
creates a bizarre, foggy world where strange coincidences, harsh
cruelty, and constantly shifting relationships all seem part of some
shadowy truth. Surreal, allegorical, and psychologically acute, My
Heart Hemmed In shows a masterful author giving her readers her most
complex and compelling world yet.