She calls herself a “near-perfect mother”; to her husband, she is a “peerless mother.” Yet one day, Marlyne Principaux drowns her three children in the bath before arranging their bodies in her bed.

In Marie NDiaye’s new novel, “Vengeance Is Mine,” a woman is haunted by a decades-old trauma she feels, but cannot quite remember. By Lovia Gyarkye When you purchase an independently reviewed book ...