Description
From one of the most original French writers of our day comes a mysterious, prismatic, and at times profoundly sad reflection on humanity in its darker moments-one of which may very well be our own. In a collection of fictions that blur distinctions between dreaming and waking reality, Lutz Bassmann sets off a series of echoes-the "entrevoutes" that conduct us from one world to another in a journey as viscerally powerful as it is intellectually heady. While humanity seems to be fading around them, the members of a shadowy organization are doing their inadequate best to assist those experiencing their last moments. From a soldier-monk exorcising what seem to be spirits (but are they?) from an abandoned house, to a spy executing a mission whose meaning eludes him, to characters exploring cells, wandering through ruins, confronting political dissent and persecution, encountering-perhaps-the spirits once exorcised, these stories conduct us through a world at once ambiguous and sharply observed. This remarkable work, in Jordan Stump's superb translation, offers readers a thrilling entry into Bassmann's numinous world.
This remarkable work, in Jordan Stump's superb translation, offers readers a thrilling entry into Bassmann's numinous world
About the Author
Lutz Bassmann belongs to a community of imaginary authors invented, championed, and literarily realized by Antoine Volodine, a French writer of Slavic origins born in 1950. Volodine's many celebrated, category-defying works include the award-winning Minor Angels (Nebraska, 2004), which blends science fiction, Tibetan myth, a ludic approach to writing, and a profound humanistic idealism. Jordan Stump is a professor of French at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is the author of The Other Book (Nebraska, 2011), has translated numerous texts, including Minor Angels, and was awarded the French-American Foundation's translation prize and the Prix Medicis in 2014.
Reviews
"A continually changing, continually new poetic force."-Christophe Kantcheff, Politis
"Between a fragile lyricism and an almost silent poetic expression of an absolute, inevitable devastation."-Hugo Pradelle, La Quinzaine Litteraire
"Vividly imagined, thought provoking and spare, this is an unusual collection . . . worth searching out."-Sandy Amazeen, Monsters and Critics
Book Information
ISBN 9780803239913
Author Lutz Bassmann
Format Paperback
Page Count 200
Imprint University of Nebraska Press
Publisher University of Nebraska Press
This remarkable work, in Jordan Stump's superb translation, offers readers a thrilling entry into Bassmann's numinous world
About the Author
Lutz Bassmann belongs to a community of imaginary authors invented, championed, and literarily realized by Antoine Volodine, a French writer of Slavic origins born in 1950. Volodine's many celebrated, category-defying works include the award-winning Minor Angels (Nebraska, 2004), which blends science fiction, Tibetan myth, a ludic approach to writing, and a profound humanistic idealism. Jordan Stump is a professor of French at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is the author of The Other Book (Nebraska, 2011), has translated numerous texts, including Minor Angels, and was awarded the French-American Foundation's translation prize and the Prix Medicis in 2014.
Reviews
"A cold-eyed rebuke to those who complain of the lack of inventiveness of French writers."-Jean-Maurice de Montremy
"A continually changing, continually new poetic force."-Christophe Kantcheff, Politis
"Between a fragile lyricism and an almost silent poetic expression of an absolute, inevitable devastation."-Hugo Pradelle, La Quinzaine Litteraire
"Vividly imagined, thought provoking and spare, this is an unusual collection . . . worth searching out."-Sandy Amazeen, Monsters and Critics
Book Information
ISBN 9780803239913
Author Lutz Bassmann
Format Paperback
Page Count 200
Imprint University of Nebraska Press
Publisher University of Nebraska Press
