We’re delighted to present an exclusive audio extract from Man Booker Prize nominee Graeme Macrae Burnet’s debut novel The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau. Taking us to an unassuming bistro in the small French town of Saint-Louis, the extract also introduces the solitary protagonist Manfred Baumann.

The audiobook recording of The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau, published by Saraband Books, was facilitated through Publishing Scotland‘s Adaptability Programme in partnership with RNIB Scotland. It is narrated by James Bryce.

If listening to the extract whetted your appetite you can find out more about the author and the novel here. Perpetually ill at ease, Manfred Baumann spends his evenings quietly drinking and surreptitiously observing Adèle Bedeau, the sullen but alluring waitress at a drab bistro in the unremarkable small French town of Saint-Louis. But one day, she simply vanishes into thin air.

When Georges Gorski, a detective haunted by his failure to solve one of his first murder cases, is called in to investigate the girl’s disappearance, Manfred’s repressed world is shaken to its core and he is forced to confront the dark secrets of his past. The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau is a literary mystery novel that is, at heart, an engrossing psychological portrayal of an outsider pushed to the limit by his own feverish imagination.

You can find out more about Graeme’s Man Booker Prize 2016 shortlisting with His Bloody Project here.