Amelie Nothomb is one of Europe's most successful and controversial authors. She wrote Hygiene and the Assasin , her first published novel, when se was only twenty-five, and it became an instant bestseller across Europe. Pretextat Tach, Nobel Prize winner and one of the world's most renowned novelists, has two months to live. He has been in seclusion for years, refusing interviews and public appearances. But as news of his impending death becomes...