The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair

The chapter begins with an excerpt from Marcus’s new book about June 27, 2008. In the excerpt, Marcus finds yet another anonymous note. He gives details on Elijah Stern, born in 1933 in Concord and who is now 75.

Marcus informs Perry what he has found out. He thinks other people knew about Nola and Harry and shows him Harry’s anonymous letters. He believes Nola was unhappy and reveals what he knows about their planned elopement. They hypothesize about the possible sequence of events.

Marcus tells Roth about Stern, and the lawyer is thrilled. Harry continues his story of his attempts to forget Nola. All that happened is extremely similar to his book The Origin of Evil, which he admits.

Saturday, July 5, 1975: Harry cannot sleep for missing Nola. He runs to her house in the middle of the night, trying to “imagine which room she was sleeping in” (194). At noon, Nola is at the dinner, where she has been crying all morning. Harry has not shown up. At home, her mother “reprimanded her severely” and made her undress to her underwear and then take off her brassiere (195). She took a metal ruler and beat her with it. Jenny tells Nola that she and Harry are an item.