2008. George ‘The Wall’ Crozat has racked up thirty-eight victories (twenty-three of them by knock-out), eight defeats, and an empty bank account. Finally ready to hang up the gloves and focus on his career as a police officer, his chief concern is how to fund his prostitution habit.
When a shady bouncer offers him a photograph, an address and a chance to finally turn a profit with his fists, the temptation is irresistible. Before long the money is flowing, but Crozat has unknowingly become a pawn in a very dangerous game.
Powerful forces are using his brutality to keep their own secrets, and Crozat teeters on the precipice of an abyss that stretches fifty years into the past, to the darkest chapter of France’s colonial history.
Switching effortlessly between past and present, and drawing on his own father’s experience of the Algerian War, Antonin Varenne’s darkly personal thriller shines a light on corruption, torture, conspiracy and revenge.
Loser’s Corner won the 2012 Prix Quai du Polar
Praise for “Loser’s Corner”
“Varenne writes with spare elegance, in a prose that is as tight in the Parisian section as it’s haunting in the Algerian one […] a compelling novel, full of common humanity and plot twists… deeply satisfying.”
, ThrillBooksJournal
“…a study of humanity in all its forms and guises it does a wonderful job. It is definitely not a genre novel and I’d definitely feel hard pressed to find a suitable niche for it. Is “life” a genre? […] a grim and claustrophobic literary read that’ll haunt your thoughts for days on end – that is if you can handle all its deep sadness and brutal violence.”
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