This is a Verba Mundi Book
published in 2005 by
DAVID R. GODINE, Publisher
Post Office Box 450
Jaffrey, New Hampshire 03452
www.godine.com
First published in Great Britain 1980
This translation © Jonathan Cape, Ltd., 1980
Jonathan Cape, Ltd., 30 Bedford Square, London WC1
First published in French 1978,
under the title Rue des Boutiques Obscures
© Éditions Gallimard, 1978
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For more information, write to Permissions, David R. Godine, Publisher, 15 Court Square, Suite 320, Boston, Massachusetts 02108.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Modiano, Patrick, 1945–
[Rue des boutiques obscures. English]
Missing person / by Patrick Modiano ; translated from the
French by Daniel Weissbort. — 1st ed.
p. cm. — (A Verba Mundi book)
ISBN 1-56792-281-3 (softcover : alk. paper)
EBOOK ISBN 978-1-56792-543-2
I. Weissbort, Daniel. II. Title. III. Series: Verba Mundi.
PQ2673. 03R813 2004
843'.914—dc22
2004019881
For Rudy
For my father
Contents
1
I AM NOTHING. Nothing but a pale shape, silhouetted that evening against the café terrace, waiting for the rain to stop; the shower had started when Hutte left me.
Some hours before, we had met again for the last time on the premises of the Agency. Hutte, as usual, sat at his massive desk, but with his coat on, so that there was really an air of departure about it. I sat opposite him, in the leather armchair we kept for clients. The opaline lamp shed a bright light which dazzled me.
“Well,