Billed as “an urban thriller full of rage and raw emotion,” Cloé Mehdi’s Nothing Is Lost leaves no doubt about its intended targets. It follows the story of a precocious 11-year-old, Mattia, as he tries to establish the truth about the broken people around him, including a potentially murderous ward (Mattia’s legal guardian) and his suicidal partner, an absent mother, and a wandering sister. Mattia also desperately wants to uncover the truth about his father, who died in murky circumstances possibly linked to the event at the heart of the novel – the murder of Said, aged 15, during a police identity check.
This act of racial injustice echoes throughout Nothing Is Lost. The noir elements of the narrative are handled well, as is the theme of mental health, and the novel is an engaging, compulsive read; it is clear to see why Mehdi has already had a garlanded career at a young age (she was born in 1992). But there are some problems: Mattia’s voice rarely feels like that of someone his age, and Said’s murder does not amount to the dramatic driving force it should be. Still, this is a compelling slice of French noir that rightly criticises broken systems.
Nothing Is Lost, Cloé Mehdi [trans. Howard Curtis] (Europa Editions)
Price: £14.99/£11.99 Ebook. Info: here
words JOSHUA REES
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