The Ninth Life of Louis Drax [Paperback]

Liz Jensen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 10, 2006

Louis Drax is a boy like no other. He is brilliant and strange, and every year something violent seems to happen to him. On his ninth birthday, Louis goes on a picnic with his parents and falls off a cliff. The details are shrouded in mystery. Louis's mother is shell-shocked; his father has vanished. And after some confusion Louis himself, miraculously alive but deep in a coma, arrives at Dr. Pascal Dannachet's celebrated coma clinic…Full of astonishing twists and turns, this is a masterful tale of the secrets the human mind can hide.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Louis Drax isn't like other children. The morbidly imaginative and sharply intuitive boy from a provincial city in France has survived eight suspicious accidents, one for each year of his life. On his ninth birthday, Louis suffers a mysterious fall from a cliff and ends up in Dr. Pascal Dannachet's experimental coma clinic, where the truth of his most recent mishap will be revealed. So begins British novelist Jensen's fourth book (War Crimes for the Home, etc.), a fiercely intelligent psychological thriller told from the alternating perspectives of the comatose Louis and the professionally conflicted Dr. Dannachet. As the French police search for Pierre Drax, the prime suspect in his son's fall, Louis negotiates the unconscious world with Gustave, his grotesque, bandaged imaginary companion, and Dr. Dannachet reluctantly falls in love with Louis's mother, Natalie. Behind the many twists and turns that ensue is a multilayered, genuinely convincing emotional drama that adds substance to the suspense. Families are torn apart, scientists are confounded by the miraculous, and the human heart unleashes its many secrets. Jensen's gift for black humor and off-kilter narratives shines throughout this page-turner, and her understanding of fractured psyches and their ability to heal is remarkable. The idiosyncrasies of her peculiar characters only make them more engaging, and at the end of Jensen's gripping tale, the reader is left eager for more.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Here is the breakout novel--a literary thriller that's almost impossible to put down--for British writer Jensen (Egg Dancing, 1996).It has already been optioned by Miramax, with Anthony Minghella (Cold Mountain) set to direct. It is narrated both by nine-year-old Louis Drax, who is in a coma in a clinic in Provence, and by his doctor, Pascal Dannachet. According to Louis' mother, Natalie, Louis was thrown off a cliff by his angry father, who has subsequently disappeared. As Dannachet, who has grown increasingly estranged from his wife, probes the Draxes' family history, he is soon smitten by emotionally needy and vulnerable Natalie, although certain elements of her story don't seem to add up. Louis' distinctive narrative voice is instantly gripping; referring to himself as the Disturbed Child, he relays in a grimly funny, precocious voice the many accidents he has suffered in his short, unhappy life. Because Louis' narration is so singular, Dannachet's suffers by comparison. This is sure to remind readers of Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time [BKL Ap 1 03]. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 227 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (January 10, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582344574
• ISBN-13: 978-1582344577
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,035,026 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wish it was longer!, February 21, 2005

By 

Jennifer Foskett "qe2brat2" (NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ninth Life of Louis Drax: A Novel (Hardcover)

An imaginitive story about a little boy who literally falls into a coma and the doctor who tries to save him from himself and his dysfunctional family. This book is so hard to put down and is such an easy read! The character's are compelling and even the "bad guy" characters have a dimension to them which allows you to empathise with their position. This is a psychological thriller that twists and turns during the entire story, leaving you guessing as to whom the culprit is and what really happened to little Louis Drax, the "Amazing Accident Prone Boy".

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 'Sixth Sense' meets 'The Curious Incident of the Dog...", March 31, 2005

By 

Brett Benner (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ninth Life of Louis Drax: A Novel (Hardcover)

Cross the eerie,'the Sixth Sense' with the stream of conscious narrative of, 'The Curious Incident of the Dog At Night time', and you'l have entered Louis Drax's world. A nine year old boy lies in a coma after a terrible fall. His mother is the only witness to the incident which she blames on her husband, claiming he pushed their son. Problem is, the husband has vanished, and the only other person who can tell what happened is buried deep in the catacombs of his mind. The book is wonderfully suspenseful with gothic overtones, and enough tension and human drama you'll want to finish in one or two sittings. I also appreciated that for the most part it kept me guessing up until the very end.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eerie and haunting, April 5, 2005

By 

Eileen Rieback (Coral Springs, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ninth Life of Louis Drax: A Novel (Hardcover)

Louis Drax calls himself the amazing accident-prone boy. He is a precocious, emotionally disturbed French nine-year-old who is oddly different from other children. He has been a victim of frequent life-threatening accidents since the complications of his birth. His Maman warns him that he is using up his nine lives faster than a cat, and she is frantic to protect him. But on his ninth birthday, while on a picnic with his parents, he falls off a cliff and his Papa vanishes without a trace. Maman claims that Papa pushed Louis off the cliff and has gone into hiding. Although pronounced dead, Louis somehow begins breathing again, but is in a deep comatose state. He is transferred to Dr. Pascal Dannachet's coma clinic while the police search for Papa.

The story is narrated alternately by Louis within his coma and by Dr. Dannachet. In a disturbing and eerily askew voice that calls to mind Christopher Boone from "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," Louis tells his life story to a mysterious bandaged man who lives in his head. Through the voice of the doctor, who becomes obsessed with Maman and talks with the police, the reader is presented with different perspectives on the severely dysfunctional Drax family and Louis's near-fatal accident. As the two narrative voices converge, the truth of Louis's past slowly emerges.

I found the book unsettling, haunting, and full of constantly shifting truths. Yet I also found it riveting, freshly original, and full of twists and surprises. Louis is presented in a quirky and endearing fashion, and his narrative mixes humor with angst. In spite of the darkness, there is a thread of hope. Once I understood all the facts of his life, I felt like rereading the beginning of the story to give his words their proper interpretation. This is not an easy read, but it is a rewarding one.

Eileen Rieback