Pure

WINNER OF THE COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD (2011) A year of bones; of grave-dirt; relentless work. Of mummified corpses and chanting priests. A year of rape; suicide; sudden death. Of friendship too. Of desire. Of love... A year unlike any other he has lived. Deep in the heart of Paris; its oldest cemetery is; by 1785; overflowing; tainting the very breath of those who live nearby. Into their midst comes Jean-Baptiste Baratte; a young; provincial engineer charged by the king with demolishing it. At first Baratte sees this as a chance to clear the burden of history; a fitting task for a modern man of reason. But before long; he begins to suspect that the destruction of the cemetery might be a prelude to his own.