Used book – Le chant des morts, Jean-Paul Demure, François Guerif

"I've known the dead for a long time. My father was already the caretaker here, before the extension. The dead are resentful. They don't let anything slide. That's why these old women come to wash, dust, bring flowers. To tell them: rest in peace. But the dead don't listen. They sing a different song."

In a small Provençal village, Brett, a retired Englishman, has bought Villa Cybèle, an architectural folly that no one else wants because "it brings bad luck." One day, after a violent storm, he sees a skull with empty eye sockets emerge from the washed-out earth of his hedge. The villagers' behaviour towards him changes radically...