Synopses & Reviews
Considered the standard-bearer for the great Franco-Swiss literary tradition, exemplified by authors such as Jacques Chessex and C. F. Ramuz, Noëlle Revaz may also remind English-language readers of Louis-Ferdinand Céline: , her shocking debut, is a novel of mud and blood whose linguistic audaciousness is matched only by its brutality, misanthropy, and gallows humor. Narrated by the singular Paul--a violent, narrow-minded farmer whose unceasing labor leaves him with more love for his livestock than his family-- is at once a fantastically exaggerated and entirely honest portrait of masculinity gone mad. With his mute and detested wife and children huddled at his side, Paul is only roused from his regimen of hard labor and casual cruelty when a farmhand, Georges, comes to work on his property for the summer. His sovereignty seemingly threatened, an element of unwanted humanity now injected into his universe, Paul's little kingdom seems ripe at last for a revolution.
Review
"The first pages of herald the arrival of a writer,without a doubt, who reacquaints us with words themselves, with rhythms, with color,with contours, with the materials of language." Jean-Louis Kuffer, 24 Heures
Synopsis
, Noelle Revaz's shocking debut, is a novel of mud and blood whose linguistic audaciousness is matched only by its brutality, misanthropy, and gallows humor which paint a portrait of masculinity gone mad.
About the Author
Noëlle Revaz was born in 1968 in the canton of Valais, Switzerland. She is the author of numerous short stories and a novel, Efina. Besides her work as a writer, she teaches creative writing at the Swiss Literature Institute at Biel/Bienne, where she lives.W. Donald Wilson is a professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada. He is a translator of fiction and nonfiction from the French, and his work includes titles by Yves Thériault, Jean Heffer, and Jacques Chessex.