Autopsy of a Father
Will be published approx. on 27. July 2017
Book
Paperback/Softback
208 pages
978-1-942658-24-5 (ISBN)
Description
Praised for her "exceptional ability to narrate the heartrending lives of ordinary people" (Jean-Louis Hippolyte), deliver a "riveting page-turner" (Entertainment Weekly), and master the "art of creating a diffuse discomfort" (Marie Claire), Pascale Kramer is one of the world's finest chroniclers of psychological disturbance and the family interior. First published in France in 2016, this novel has already been named a finalist for three prizes.
Autopsy of a Father was inspired by the real-life scandal of French author Richard Millet who, in 2012, made headlines for publishing an essay in praise of Anders Breivik, the right-wing extremist who killed 77 people in Norway.
Set in France, the novel addresses issues of racism and anti-immigrant sentiment rampant throughout Europe by showing how the personal becomes political. Without resorting to polemics, Kramer shows how a recognized intellectual can shift toward dark and intolerant positions, and how that can tear through the fabric of a family and society at large.
Autopsy of a Father was inspired by the real-life scandal of French author Richard Millet who, in 2012, made headlines for publishing an essay in praise of Anders Breivik, the right-wing extremist who killed 77 people in Norway.
Set in France, the novel addresses issues of racism and anti-immigrant sentiment rampant throughout Europe by showing how the personal becomes political. Without resorting to polemics, Kramer shows how a recognized intellectual can shift toward dark and intolerant positions, and how that can tear through the fabric of a family and society at large.
Reviews / Votes
Advance Praise for Autopsy of a FatherFinalist for the La Closerie des Lilas, Ouest-France, and Orange du Livre Prizes
?Restrained, chiseled, implacable, the novels of Pascale Kramer perfectly master the art of creating a diffuse discomfort. Poignant." ?Marie Claire (Switzerland)
?This novel masterfully establishes the cross-transmission of misunderstandings within families and those that take root at the heart of society. Ignored, they lead to unimaginable violence, all the way to the cemetery, where not even the dead can rest." ?Le Point
?[Kramer's] fiction penetrates the terrain of the intimate, places itself in the blind spot of analysis and statistics, and makes silent explosions palpable." ?L'Echo
?[Kramer's] talent is to lead us into human interiority from concrete situations, through details that are all the more effective because they're delivered without judgment. . . . In this autopsy of a recognizable world, there is pleasure to be taken in the text, in spite of the seriousness of the subject." ?Le Devoir
?Pascale Kramer depicts a society where misunderstanding and insecurity feed fear, which leads to aggressive mistrust, rejection, and hatred, the fatal poison of which little by little contaminates everyone." ?Avant-Critiques Advance Praise for Autopsy of a Father
Finalist for the La Closerie des Lilas, Ouest-France, and Orange du Livre Prizes
"Restrained, chiseled, implacable, the novels of Pascale Kramer perfectly master the art of creating a diffuse discomfort. Poignant." -Marie Claire (Switzerland)
"This novel masterfully establishes the cross-transmission of misunderstandings within families and those that take root at the heart of society. Ignored, they lead to unimaginable violence, all the way to the cemetery, where not even the dead can rest." -Le Point
"[Kramer's] fiction penetrates the terrain of the intimate, places itself in the blind spot of analysis and statistics, and makes silent explosions palpable." -L'Echo
"[Kramer's] talent is to lead us into human interiority from concrete situations, through details that are all the more effective because they're delivered without judgment. . . . In this autopsy of a recognizable world, there is pleasure to be taken in the text, in spite of the seriousness of the subject." -Le Devoir
"Pascale Kramer depicts a society where misunderstanding and insecurity feed fear, which leads to aggressive mistrust, rejection, and hatred, the fatal poison of which little by little contaminates everyone." -Avant-Critiques
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 188 mm
Width: 124 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
204 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-942658-24-5 (9781942658245)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Pascale Kramer
Autopsy of a Father
E-Book
07/2017
Bellevue Literary Press
€16.49
Available for download
Persons
Pascale Kramer, recipient of the 2017 Swiss Grand Prize for Literature, is the author of fourteen books, including three novels published in English: The Living, The Child, and Autopsy of a Father, which was named a finalist for the La Closerie des Lilas, Ouest-France, and Orange du Livre prizes. Born in Geneva, she has worked in Los Angeles, and now lives in Paris, where she directs a documentary film festival about children's rights.
Robert Bononno has translated more than two dozen full-length works of fiction and nonfiction from the French and has taught translation at New York University and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is a French-American Foundation Translation Prize finalist and the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships. He lives in New York.
Robert Bononno has translated more than two dozen full-length works of fiction and nonfiction from the French and has taught translation at New York University and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is a French-American Foundation Translation Prize finalist and the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships. He lives in New York.