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Translations > Fiction > First Novels
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The Bathroom
La Salle de Bain
by Jean-Philippe Toussaint
Translated by Nancy Amphoux
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First published in France in 1985, The Bathroom was Jean-Philippe Toussaint's debut novel, and it heralded a new generation of innovative French literature. In this playful and perplexing book, we meet a young Parisian researcher who lives inside his bathroom. As he sits in his tub meditating on existence (and refusing to tell us his name), the people around him—his girlfriend, Edmondsson, the Polish painters in his kitchen—each in their own way further enables his peculiar lifestyle, supporting his eccentric quest for immobility. But an invitation to the Austrian embassy shakes up his stable world, prompting him to take a risk and leave his bathroom . . . |
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First English Language Edition
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French Publisher :
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Editions de Minuit
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American Publisher :
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Dalkey Archive Press
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Published :
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2008
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Number of Pages :
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102
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Price :
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12.95 $
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ISBN :
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9781564785183
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| In French journalist Curiol´s mesmerizing debut novel, an unnamed young woman drifts, solitary and aimless, through contemporary Paris. She works as an announcer at a train station and is in love with a man who lives with another woman. Her longing to connect with others and dismaying inability to assert herself leaves the protagonist vulnerable to approaches by strangers with doubtful intentions, and she finds herself in a number of sordid and perilous encounters (a one-night stand with a transvestite, trouble with a drug dealer). The sparely plotted novel takes some surprising turns toward the end, as the protagonist and her beloved tentatively become involved, and she reveals to him the roots of her emotional fragility. The novel broods in a classically French way, and the bleak meanderings are beautifully wrought. The ending is, of course, a downer, but it´s earned and powerful. |
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Voice Over
Voix sans issue
by Céline Curiol &
Translated by Sam Richard
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First English Language Edition
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French Publisher :
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Actes Sud
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American Publisher : |
Seven Stories Press
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Published :
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2008
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Number of Pages :
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288
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Price :
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24.95 $
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ISBN :
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978-1583228487
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Mercury Under My Tongue
Du mercure sous la langue
by Sylvain Trudel
Translated by Sheila Fischman
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Frederick Langlois could be that geeky 17-year-old found in every high school — the one who closely clutches his poem-filled notebook, who feels a bit too deeply, who’s just a little too old for his years. But Frederick isn’t in high school. He’s in a hospital ward with other critically ill adolescents, dying of bone cancer. Mercury Under the Tongue chronicles his short stay there, from his distant but friendly relationship with his therapist through comic moments in the ward and his emergent friendships with other teenage patients. Some survive, others are lost, and at the end, Frederick must make a final reckoning with himself and his family, one that is at once dispassionate and deeply felt. Avoiding both misty stoicism and made-for-TV bathos, the book exposes the fallible body as the humanizing factor that grounds spirited adolescent talk, creating a believable, likable protagonist while weaving a compelling, lyrical story. |
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First English Language Edition
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French Publisher :
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Les Allusifs
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American Publisher :
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Soft Skull Press
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Published :
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2008
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Number of Pages :
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160
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Price :
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13.95 $
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ISBN :
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978-1933368962
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| Salvador de Bahia – an ill wind is blowing through the old quarter of the city. This powerful debut has already evoked comparisons to the Brazilian film City of God.
On a vibrant square in Salvador, a small community, although impoverished, lives in harmony: Maria Aparecida, former carnival queen; Ivone, the beautiful, naïve convent guardian who dreams of becoming an actress; Padre Denilson, full of compassion and understanding for his wretched parishioners; seven-year-old Sergio, who sells sweets and perfumed napkins to support his whole family; Zé and Manuel, two gay teenagers begging to survive. Despite the hardships they are forced to endure, it is their deep-rooted sense of community and positive outlook which protects them from the violent chaos that rules Brazil´s two major metropoles. Suddenly a stranger called Gringa enters this small world, and everything starts to change: Maria has disappeared, one-eyed Tonio has stopped singing and Mama Lourdes foresees nothing but tragedy. One by one, the inhabitants of the Square, tired of their provincial existence and dazzled by the urban glamour portrayed on their favourite soap opera, depart for the cities of Rio and São Paulo. However, the reality of life in the cities´ favelas is a bitter disappointment – a tough game of survival guaranteed to harden even the most tender of hearts. |
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Bahia Blues
Les enfants de La Place
by Yasmina Traboulsi
Translated by Polly McLean
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First English Language Edition
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French Publisher :
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Mercure de France
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British Publisher :
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Arcadia
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Published :
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2007
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Number of Pages :
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123
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Price :
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10.99 £
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ISBN :
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1-905147-28-7
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The Theory of Clouds
La Théorie des Nuages
by Stéphane Audeguy
Translated by Timothy Bent
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A kira Kumo, miraculous survivor of Hiroshima, reinvented himself as someone twenty years younger. Now an eccentric couturier and collector of all literature having to do with clouds and meteorology, he hires Virginie, a young librarian, to catalog his library. While she works, he tells her stories of those who have devoted their lives to clouds: the Quaker Luke Howard, contemporary of Napoleon and Goethe, who first classified clouds; the painter Carmichael (based on John Constable), who spent a year painting clouds; and the mysterious Abercrombie, a photographer who cataloged clouds around the world. Virginie’s trip to London in search of the suppressed Abercrombie protocol becomes a quest no less wondrous and strange than Kumo’s own. Sensual, hypnotic, and filled with stories both true and fanciful, The Theory of Clouds is a masterful first novel. |
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First English Language Edition
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French Publisher :
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Gallimard
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American Publisher :
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Harcourt Books
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Published :
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2007
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Number of Pages :
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272
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Price :
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24 $
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ISBN :
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9780151014286
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