02133cam a2200277 4500 760531990 TxAuBib 20230607120000.0 220223s2023||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2022005436 9780385548304 HRD 27.00 0385548303 HRD 27.00 TxAuBib Mackintosh, Sophie, author. Cursed bread [BOOK] : a novel / Sophie Mackintosh. 1st US ed. New York : Doubleday, [2023] 190 pages ; 22 cm. "From the Man Booker-nominated author of The Water Cure comes an elegant and hypnotic new novel of obsession that centers on the real unsolved mystery of the 1951 mass poisoning of a French village. Still reeling in the aftermath of the deadliest war theworld had ever seen, the small town of Pont-Saint-Esprit lost its mind. Some historians believe the mysterious illness and violent hallucinations were caused by spoiled bread; others claim it was the result of covert government testing on the local population. In that town lived a woman named Elodie. She was the baker's wife: a plain, unremarkable person who yearned to transcend her dull existence. So when a charismatic new couple arrived in town, the forceful ambassador and his sharp-toothed wife, Violet, Elodie was quickly drawn into their orbit. Thus began a dangerous game of cat and mouse - but who was the predator and on whom did they prey? Audacious and mesmerising, Cursed Bread is a fevered confession, an entry into memory's hall of mirrors, a fable of obsession and transformation. Sophie Mackintosh spins a darkly gleaming tale of a town gripped by hysteria, envy like poison in the blood, and desire that burns and consumes"-- Provided by publisher. 20230607. Triangles (Interpersonal relations) Fiction. Poisoning Fiction. Pont-Saint-Esprit (France) Fiction. France History 1945-1958 Fiction. Historical fiction.