Imagine a shop that for ten generations has sold all the accoutrements for the perfect suicide. This family business prospers in all its bleak misery, until it encounters joie de vivre in the shape of younger son, Alan. What will become of The Suicide Shop in the face of Alan's relentless good cheer, optimism and determination to make the customers smile? In this futuristic novel, which has sold 53,000 copies in hardback in France, Jean Teule humorously explores universal themes of life, death and family. AUTHOR: Jean Teule lives in the Marais with his companion, the French film actress Miou-Miou. An illustrator, filmmaker and television presenter, he is also the prize-winning author of ten books including one based on the life of Verlaine. In researching that book he discovered that a group of nineteenth-century poets found a review called The Suicide Shop and this inspired his novel. He has also written biographies of Rimbaud and Francois Villon.