Anni Kramer

In The Grip of Doubt Anni Kramer

Set in the garigue of Southern France, this is the sweeping story of a man's search for the truth to his father's death. When the fruit-grower Pierre Caron dies from a head wound in an unexplained hunting accident, his widow and fifteen-year old son Jean leave their village to live in the city. The loss of his beloved father deeply affects Jean. He is never left by the desire to find the person responsible for his father's death. His search for the man he suspects is guilty takes him across Europe and then to Australia. The journey leads to numerous encounters that make a lasting impression on his conceptual world. Though his search remains fruitless, he ultimately realizes that it is not only the answer to a mystery that he is looking for, but that he is seeking to find his own identity. Years later, Jean returns to his native village where he soon runs across people from his youth. He finds his boyhood friends and those who had been close to his father. Their cryptic remarks gradually make him suspect that some of the villagers know more about the incident than they are willing to admit. The wall of silence is finally broken when a chance encounter brings the truth to light.