The Flemish writer Dani?l Robberechts (1937-1992) refused to identify his books as novels, stories, or essays, according them all equal status as, simply, writing. This liberation from genre gives his work, for all its apparent simplicity, an elusive, hypnotic quality, and no more so than in his debut, "Arriving in Avignon," which records a young man's first encounter with that labyrinthine city, and his likewise meandering relationship with a girl from his home town-and indeed virtually every woman he meets. Hesistant and cautious, unable quite to enter nor turn away, the young man seems to circle Avignon endlessly, in the process attempting to delay his inevitable descent into maturity and monogamy. What seems at first like a cross between a memoir and a guidebook comes in time to be the story of a young man's dogged yet futile quest to know his own mind-unless it's the ancient city of Avignon itself that is our real protagonist: a mystery that can be approached, but never wholly solved.

A young man away from home populates an ancient city with his dreams and desires.

About the Author
Daniel Robberechts (1937-1992) is best remembered for his two works of autobiographical fiction, each centered on a particular city, and now considered classics of Flemish literature: Arriving in Avignon and Writing Prague. At the time of his death, he was engaged in a nine-volume project investigating the manipulative mechanisms of language. Paul Vincent is an award-winning translator of Dutch literature whose translation of Hendrik Marsman's Herinnering aan Holland earned the David Reid Poetry Translation Prize.


Book Information
ISBN 9781564785923
Author Daniel Robberechts
Format Paperback
Page Count 148
Imprint Dalkey Archive Press
Publisher Dalkey Archive Press
Weight(grams) 204g
Dimensions(mm) 200mm * 139mm * 15mm