The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair

December 18, 2008: Harry visits Marcus for his final goodbye. Marcus shows him the recording of Jenny’s interrogation. She claims she never suspected anything until they found Nola’s body, at which point she heard Pratt talking to Travis, claiming Harry would get the blame. She confronted Travis, who confessed to the murder. She protected him by threatening Marcus and setting fire to the car and the house. Pratt was cracking under pressure, so they eliminated him and the gun he had kept.

Next, they watch Travis’s interrogation. Pratt was going to confess, so Travis hit him with the nightstick, the same one he used on Nola. Jenny asked her father to get rid of the things because she did not trust Travis with them. When they arrested Robert, Travis decided to let him take the blame, at least until he and Jenny got out of the country. Travis kept Nola’s necklace as a memento, he reveals, saying, “That necklace was my punishment. It reminded me of the past” (577).

Crying, Harry refuses to watch the final truth revealed. Marcus discloses that Harry did not write The Origin of Evil: There are no seagulls in the novel, and Harry swore to Nola he would include them. The Seagulls of Somerset is Harry’s novel, and Luther Caleb wrote The Origin of Evil. Harry used Marcus to burn the manuscript that would have shown it was not his handwriting. Marcus understood this after the arrests, when Stern asked to see him.

November 14, 2008. At Elijah Stern’s estate, Marcus apologizes to Stern, who says he, too, thought Caleb had killed Nola, as Caleb stalked the pair: “he was living a love affair through them” (581). In his room, Stern found Nola’s letters to Harry, which Caleb must have stolen. Late on the final night, they argued, and Caleb recognized the voice and realized Stern—part of a fraternity at Harvard that beat up poor people—was one of the men who disfigured him. (Troubled by guilt, Stern gave Caleb a job and everything else he wanted.) That night, Caleb left, and Stern could not find him. Stern kept the Mustang and the letters.

The letter with the photos Nola left for Harry never reached him, as Caleb took it and started a correspondence with Nola, as Harry. Harry was unhappy with his writing, and then one day Caleb showed up, asking Harry to read his book. Harry accepted, staggered at how well written it was. He never saw Caleb again, and a month later he realized Caleb was dead, so he claimed the manuscript as his own. Caleb left the typed manuscript in Nola’s mailbox together with the last letter because he knew she was going to elope, but Nola thought this, too, was from Harry, and she had her final breakdown.

Marcus offers his hypothesis on the final day of Nola’s life: August 30, 1975. Luther picks up Nola, who has just run away, wanting to check whether Harry is at the motel. Travis spots them and goes after them, as he wants to deal with Luther. Caleb admits he wrote the letters. As police approach, Nola begs Caleb not to stop. They escape into the woods so Nola can get to the motel. Deborah Cooper sees them running and calls the police. Travis phones Pratt from Mrs. Cooper’s home. He believes Caleb plans to hurt Nola. In the forest, Pratt and Travis find Caleb and beat him. Nola has a vision of her mother, who tells to go back to her father, as Harry will wait for her. She runs back to Caleb, who is dead by now; she has witnessed a murder. Pratt and Travis follow her to Mrs. Cooper’s house, and Pratt kills the woman. Nola runs again, but they catch up, and Travis hits her on the head, killing her.

Pratt stages the scene: Travis is going to get rid of Caleb and Nola’s bodies. They enact a chase because someone spotted the car Travis was driving and go to Goose Cove, where they leave the car in the garage. Late that night, they go back and bury Nola in the yard. Travis then drives the Chevy to Sagamore, where he stages Caleb’s accident.

In the present, Harry admits he knew about Nola’s illness and wanted to run away with her so she could get help. He repeats that they can no longer be friends, as he has relinquished the ideals of what a writer is, whereas Marcus still has greatness in him. Marcus feels he owes everything to Harry and his 31 rules of writing. Harry leaves Marcus for the last time.