Tarantula

One of the most hard-hitting and talented French authors of recent decades, Thierry Jonquet has established himself in the competitive and demanding European market with crime novels and narratives with a strong political bent. In *Tarantula*—which inspired Almodóvar's new film, *The Skin I Live In*—he explores modern barbarity to create a perverse fable of sexual horror and sadism. A story with Marquis de Sade vibes and Bosch-esque aesthetics, the protagonist is a cross between Dr. Frankenstein and Prometheus, the mythical Greek hero who steals light from the gods to give it to mortals. The result is a spectacular thriller, a dehumanizing, cynical, and ethically dubious narrative. Richard Lafargue is an eminent plastic surgeon haunted by perverse secrets. He keeps an operating room in the basement of his castle... and his wife, Eve, is imprisoned in the bedroom. A room equipped with a communicator through which he gives orders. Eve is only released to be paraded at cocktail parties. And on the last Sunday of the month, the couple visits a young woman in a mental institution. After their outings, Lafargue humiliates Eve and forces her to have sex with strangers while he watches. In alternating chapters, Jonquet also introduces us to different characters, seemingly unconnected. A criminal on the run after killing a police officer; a young man chained, naked, in a dark chamber, forced to suffer all manner of torture at the hands of a mysterious stranger he calls Mygale, the name of a tropical spider. All these people are caught in a web of intrigue, destined to meet their fate. Jonquet masterfully moves the pieces of this game, heightening the suspense with each new chapter, building in Tarantula a novel that captures and envelops like a spider its prey.