“Carried by an implacable style that is stripped of all pity and pathos, the story has the airs of a Greek tragedy where everyone is being drawn uncontrollably towards his destiny.”
Madame Figaro

“Philippe Besson explores the flip side of the American dream in one of his best novels.”
Le Parisien


Laura has decided to kill herself today. At 45, she’s a divorced waitress with two sons who seem to pay her no attention except when they need something from her, which isn’t often. Samuel’s day is not much brighter. His seventeen year-old son Paul recently committed suicide and the funeral is to take place today.

It is November 4, 2008. While the rest of America is teeming with the excitement of change in the air at the prospect of an Obama presidency, Laura and Samuel lead their quite lives in desperation.

How can they both escape the merciless unraveling of the day? Will Samuel be able to overcome his sadness, if only just to make it through the memorial service? Does he have the right to survive the absence of his own son? And what can he make of his son’s action, one as revolting as it is inexplicable?

As for Laura, nobody will mourn her death, not her ex-husband who moved on with his life or her indifferent sons.

Samuel and Laura are complete strangers but have so much in common. Their paths will cross incidentally, at dusk, but their destinies have already been written.

Besson’s Une bonne raison de se tuer is a novel of modern melancholy that explores the emptiness contemporary society can make us feel.