Brodeck's Report: WINNER OF THE INDEPENDENT FOREIGN FICTION PRIZE

Brodeck's Report: WINNER OF THE INDEPENDENT FOREIGN FICTION PRIZE

by John Cullen (Translator), Philippe Claudel (Author)

Synopsis

The report that Brodeck is writing into the lynching of an artist, an outsider, a flamboyant Other figure who has deeply disturbed the fragile equilibrium of the town he briefly settled in, becomes a report into the catastrophe of his own life. Brodeck, it seems, himself also an outsider, has lately returned from a concentration camp. In the course of his investigation into the death of the artist, he uncovers the truth about his distant origins, about his having been rounded up when the Germans came to the town, and all that happened to his family when he was gone. This immensely powerful chronicle of a community's fear and loathing of what is strange, what is from the outside, has been hailed as one of the outstanding European novels of the last decade.

$3.44

Save:$21.76 (86%)

Quantity

1 in stock

More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 288
Publisher: Quercus
Published: 05 Feb 2009

ISBN 10: 1906694044
ISBN 13: 9781906694043
Prizes: Winner of Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2010 and Prix Goncourt des Lyceens 2007.

Media Reviews
A haunting study of isolated communities and the potential for violence lurking in them ... a superb example of Philippe Claudel's work' Mail on Sunday. * Mail on Sunday *
There are dark shades of Kafka, Camus, and Primo Levi but Claudel's lyricism evokes the deliciousness of life even as he plumbs the depths of intolerance and evil' Financial Times. * Financial Times *
Simply and lucidly composed, splendidly constructed, Brodeck's Report is a magnificent book ... above all, on the question of otherness - Le Monde * Le Monde *
A superb novel, equal parts Kafkaesque disorientation, Primo Levi's devastating account's of the killing camps, Italo Calvino's post-modern playfulness and Jean Genet's unflinching eye for the sewers through which the blood of our histories must flow' Sunday Business Post. * Sunday Business Post *
...an original, brilliant and disturbing book ... It is a relentless, uncomfortable book that achieves a beauty of its own through Claudel's deft writing and passionate commitment to truth. Claudel is a novelist of ideas, in the French tradition. He deals skillfully in archetypes and abstractions ... a journey that goes to the heart of what it means to be human - The Times. * The Times *
Author Bio
Philippe Claudel is a university lecturer, novelist, film director and scriptwriter. He has written 14 novels that have been translated into various languages. He was born in Dombasle-sur-Meurthe in 1962 where he still lives. In 2009 his film I've Loved You So Long (Il y a longtemps que je t'aime), which draws upon Claudel's eleven years teaching in prisons, won the BAFTA for Best Foreign Language film. Among his novels, Grey Souls won the Prix Renaudot in France, the American Gumshoe Award and the Swedish Martin Beck award. Brodeck's Report won the 2010 Independent Foreign Fiction Award.