How's the Pain?

By Pascal Garnier, Emily Boyce (translator),

Book cover of How's the Pain?

Book description

How's the Pain? is an off-kilter, blackly comic novel about an unlikely duo of a soon-to-be-retired assassin and a deadbeat young man, from the 'slyly funny' [Sunday Times] Pascal Garnier.

'Deliciously dark ... painfully funny' New York Times

Death is Simon's business. And now the ageing vermin exterminator is preparing…

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Why read it?

1 author picked How's the Pain? as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Daniel Ben-Horin

Author

I like to read thrillers set in countries I'm visiting, and so I randomly picked up How's the Pain? billed as “French Noir”. The title alone is almost worth the price of admission.

It is supposedly the standard greeting among some African tribesmen. Beats the existential pants off “How are you?”, don’t you think? The writing fulfills the title’s promise. It is tight and funny, brutal in parts, but doesn’t succumb to some noir’s tendency to gratuitously pile on the awfulness of it all.

From Daniel's list on funny international classics you (may) have not heard of.