Synopses & Reviews
“It is to me that we owe our immortality, and this is the story that proves it beyond all doubt.” With this sentence René Belletto begins a novel that compresses every genre he has worked in—thriller, science fiction, experimental literature, horror—into one breathless narrative in which what is at stake is nothing less than our own immortality.
Playing with the expectations of the reader, Belletto constructs a logical puzzle that defies logic, much like the “almost-perpetual motion machine” invented by the narrator of this novel and his father. What sets the story in (perpetual) motion is a package of frozen seafood. This lowly mechanism triggers a series of picaresque and otherworldly events, from the storytellers meeting with Fate disguised as a beautiful woman, to the kidnapping of his daughter, to his amorous reunion with the younger half-sister of a high school friend, to the elimination of death from the world. Its a funny business, but Bellettos playful and falsely transparent language opens the book to such serious matters as explorations of death, immortality, love, and the innocence of children.
Review
"Fans of Paul Auster's brand of literary gamesmanship will recognize a kindred spirit here."—Kirkus Kirkus
Review
"This madcap, metaphysical mystery ably fits perpetual motion machines, immortality, and blood-sacrifice sects into 88 brisk and brainy pages. . . . Elegant and smart, this novella leaves readers with questions that prove incredibly difficult to untangle."—Publishers Weekly Starred review Publishers Weekly
Review
"René Belletto has built a gripping, thoughtful and satisfying work of fiction."—J.P. Smith, Nervous Breakdown --Kirkus
Review
"[Coda] is both enjoyable simply for the story that slowly unfolds as well as for the philosophical puzzle (and solution) it turns out to be."—M.A. Orthofer, Complete Review M.A. Orthofer
Review
"Coda cuts a wide berth in the reader's mind, beginning with a mysterious package of frozen clams appearing in the narrator's freezer and expanding to include perpetual motion machines, a fancy party, an alluring woman, and murder."—Paul Constant, The Stranger Complete Review
Review
“One of Frances most talented writers, Laurent Mauvignier always kept a low profile on the literary scene—until his stunning novel about the Algerian War became a runaway bestseller.”—
France Today
Review
“
The Wound gives us a France that few American readers will recognize, a land and a people marked by a history in which memory and violence can seem indistinguishable. . . . David and Nicole Balls translation is as elegant as a flick-knife—a superb version of this viscerally important novel.”—Michael Gorra, author of
Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece
Review
“[Mauvignier is] one of the major French writers today.”—
Lire Magazine Review
"In a mesmerizing story that unfolds at a leisurely pace. Vivian deftly illustrates the fragility of life and the consuming nature of loss. Readers who enjoy literary fiction that delves into the nuances of the human psyche will want to read this novel."—Library Journal Review
Review
“Robert Vivians new gorgeous, haunting novel—so lyrical, precise, and finely wrought—takes us deep into the secret recesses of human life in Dark Vespers, Nebraska, exploring with both grace and power what it is that we can and cannot truly know about one another.”—Richard McCann, author of Mother of Sorrows
Synopsis
It is to me that we owe our immortality, and this is the story that proves it beyond all doubt. With this sentence Rene Belletto begins a novel that compresses every genre he has worked in thriller, science fiction, experimental literature, horror into one breathless narrative in which what is at stake is nothing less than our own immortality.
Playing with the expectations of the reader, Belletto constructs a logical puzzle that defies logic, much like the almost-perpetual motion machine invented by the narrator of this novel and his father. What sets the story in (perpetual) motion is a package of frozen seafood. This lowly mechanism triggers a series of picaresque and otherworldly events, from the storyteller s meeting with Fate disguised as a beautiful woman, to the kidnapping of his daughter, to his amorous reunion with the younger half-sister of a high school friend, to the elimination of death from the world. It s a funny business, but Belletto s playful and falsely transparent language opens the book to such serious matters as explorations of death, immortality, love, and the innocence of children.
"
Synopsis
“Where is your wound?” asks Jean Genet in the lines Laurent Mauvignier uses as an epigraph to
The Wound. By the time we have finished this four-part novel, we realize that for many the wound lies four decades back in “the Events” that people have tried to not talk about ever since: the Algerian War.
Chronicling the lives of two cousins—Bernard and Rabut—both in the present and at the time of the Algerian War of Independence in the 1960s, we get a full picture of the lasting effects this event had on the men who were involved. Through the fragments of their stories we see the whole history of the war: its atrocities, its horrors, and its hatreds. Mauvignier shows readers how the Algerian War, always present yet always repressed, has sickened the emotional and moral life of everyone it touched—and France itself, perhaps. The epigraph, like the novel, suggests that wounded men may even become the wound itself.
Synopsis
Its been a year since the body of seventeen-year-old Kelsey Little was found in the river outside Dark Vespers, Nebraska. Although the town may have reached an uneasy equilibrium, those who loved her most have certainly not: Javier Martinez, her troubled ex-boyfriend and the father of the child no one knew she was carrying; Sam and Hank, her parents, whose marriage is coming apart under the pressure of grief and not-knowing; and Ike Parrish, a reclusive eccentric whose clairvoyant “river spells” compel him to come forward with information about Kelseys disappearance and death.
A prismatic look at the impact of loss on individual lives, Water and Abandon tells the moving and paradoxical story of those brought together by the very thing that tears them apart. Haunted by Kelseys death, each struggles with his or her own demons of blame and guilt, despair and fury—until one, in a confusion of pain, grief, and unrequited love, decides to do something dire. As deeply felt as it is finely crafted, the novel confirms Robert Vivians place among the most interesting fiction writers of our day.
About the Author
René Belletto was born in France in 1945. His first book, Le Temps mort, won the Prix Jean Ray for fantasy literature, his novel Sur le terre comme au ciel won the Grand Prix for fiction, and his novel LEnfer won the Prix Fémina. Alyson Waters teaches translation at Yale University. She has translated multiple books, including Vassilis Alexakiss Foreign Words and Albert Cosserys A Splendid Conspiracy. Stacey Levine is the author of four works of fiction, including, most recently, The Girl with Brown Fur: Tales and Stories.