
The Messengers
Georges-Olivier Chateaureynaud(Author)
Wakefield Press
Published on 10. April 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
172 pages
978-1-939663-99-3 (ISBN)
Description
A Kafkaesque odyssey across a dreamlike, universal landscape
An unnamed adolescent drifter wanders through an unnamed country at an unspecified point in time in search of warmth and comfort. He finds it at a farm engaged in festivities but is immediately forced to flee the next morning after coveting the mysterious lady of the estate. Now a fugitive, the vagabond encounters and joins with another, a wry middle-aged man tasked with delivering a message sealed in a tube. The two pursue a dreamlike chain of clues and horror in their mission, encountering-as well as perpetrating-crime and cruelty, until the boy's former aimlessness develops into an unexpected destiny. An at times unsettling narrative of initiation, the torments of desire and the death of youth, The Messengers is an oneiric exploration of a realm that embodies the parables of Kafka and the atmosphere of Alain-Fournier. This novella was the winner of the Prix des Nouvelles litteraires when it was first published in French in 1974.
Georges-Olivier Chateaureynaud (born 1947) is a French novelist and short-story author. He has been the recipient of the Prix Renaudot, Prix Goncourt de la nouvelle, Prix Giono, Prix Valery Larbaud and the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire.
An unnamed adolescent drifter wanders through an unnamed country at an unspecified point in time in search of warmth and comfort. He finds it at a farm engaged in festivities but is immediately forced to flee the next morning after coveting the mysterious lady of the estate. Now a fugitive, the vagabond encounters and joins with another, a wry middle-aged man tasked with delivering a message sealed in a tube. The two pursue a dreamlike chain of clues and horror in their mission, encountering-as well as perpetrating-crime and cruelty, until the boy's former aimlessness develops into an unexpected destiny. An at times unsettling narrative of initiation, the torments of desire and the death of youth, The Messengers is an oneiric exploration of a realm that embodies the parables of Kafka and the atmosphere of Alain-Fournier. This novella was the winner of the Prix des Nouvelles litteraires when it was first published in French in 1974.
Georges-Olivier Chateaureynaud (born 1947) is a French novelist and short-story author. He has been the recipient of the Prix Renaudot, Prix Goncourt de la nouvelle, Prix Giono, Prix Valery Larbaud and the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire.
Reviews / Votes
'The Messengers' has something to it of lore or forgotten ghost stories, a living hell of a cycle passed down from one generation to another. -- Tom Bowden * Bookbeat *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United States
Dimensions
Height: 177 mm
Width: 117 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
144 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-939663-99-3 (9781939663993)
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Schweitzer Classification