KATHLEEN CLARE WALLER

An Interpreter in Vienna

(Palette et Papier, 2024 ©Kathleen Clare Waller)

A psychological thriller and response to Graham Greene's The Third Man.

Marie Thibaut is a new interpreter for the French government in Vienna. Despite strange locals and diplomats alike, she is enamored by the promise of the utopian city. But Marie’s life is complicated when she attempts to be someone important and encounters strange historical crossroads. She enters the Viennese spy world and becomes disoriented in cultural exchanges and uncanny experiences.

Will Marie’s mind succumb to phobias, layered meanings, and isolation or will she persevere and find the right allies with whom she may do good in the world? Marie tells this tale as a long letter to her employer, Grégoire Lefebvre, and his wife Julie in an attempt to clear her name in the hours before mysterious Josef arrives at her door…at the threshold where she believes one of them will die.