Overview

Ludvik is a man who has touched bottom. Eleven years ago he left his country appalled by the poisonous spiritual and moral bankruptcy of East European communism. Now he is back. Not because the situation has improved - the post-communist era has brought its own brand of cynicism and soullessness - but because he has been rejected by the woman he loved and, like a wounded animal seeking refuge, he has come home. But home is a bleak and comfortless place where the heart is broken and the lover has lost all capacity. Yet even when all seems hopeless, small miracles do occur, and salvation comes from the most unlikely quarters.

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9781903517161

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Germain is endowed with extraordinary narrative and descriptive abilities. She excels in portraits of emotional intensity and the gritty realism of raw emotions

".."".arguably the greatest writer of her generation."" ""Germain is endowed with extraordinary narrative and descriptive abilities. She excels in portraits of emotional intensity and the gritty realism of raw emotions"""

Sylvie Germain is a highly acclaimed French writer, with a strong academic background in philosophy. Her work has been translated into no fewer than 17 languages, and has received critical attention worldwide. Her time teaching philosophy in Prague obviously inspired the backdrop to this, her latest work of fiction and the last volume of her Prague trilogy. The same excellent translator, Christine Donougher, has worked on the English language version of each book, which means that the tone and style is consistent throughout. Ludvik is making a journey. He is returning to his East European home after 11 years in self-imposed exile. During these years, his country of birth has abandoned communism and things have changed beyond all recognition - but this is not why Ludvik is returning home. Rejected by his lover, he crawls home looking for some comfort or relief. But his homeland does not offer him much solace to begin with. His old teacher and inspiration, Brum, is dying, degenerating before Ludvik's eyes. And the country he left is grey, cold and cynical. Even in this landscape of despair however, there are beacons of hope. Ludvik receives insights and flashes of light from unlikely quarters. He gradually begins a new journey, an emotional and mental journey from dark disenchantment through 'a gentle rush of consciousness' to 'the morning light of the world'. Germain's is an introspective, intelligent and often bleak narrative, rich in literary and artistic reference. There is little here in terms of plot; this is a simple story, with much in the way of surprising dialogue and a wealth of silent musing. An important novel. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

While employed by the Ministry of Culture in Paris, where she remained between 1981 and 1986, she produced her first novel, Le Livre des Nuits in 1985. It won six French Literary Prizes as well as the Scott Moncrieff Translations Prize in English. The reception of the book established her as a significnt new author. From Paris she moved to Prague, Czechoslovakia, where, from 1987 to 1993, she taught philosophy at the French School, and continued to write. [1] In 1989, she published Jours de Colere, (Days of Anger), which won the Prix Femina. In 1993, Sylvie Germain returned to France. She then lived between Paris and La Rochelle. But Prague continued to inspire her, a theme especially apparent in the novel Immensites, as well as the cultural life of Czech Republic more generally, as reflected in her meditation on the life and work of Bohuslav Reynek. Since 1994 she has been involved only in literary activities. In 1999, Sylvie Germain produced a biography focusing on the life of Etty Hillesum, the young Dutch Jewish woman who died at Auschwitz in November 1943, leaving behind a journal. Germain explored her spiritual life and, a year later, she published several books in various genres: a travelogue, a spiritual text and a photo album. In 2002 she published a new novel, La Chanson des Mal-Aimants, translated in English as The Song of False Lovers. Her 2005 novel Magnus was awarded the Prix Goncourt des Lyceens (a prize voted on by French high school students). Her most recent novel, l'inaperçu, was published by Albin Michel in August 2008. In addition to novels, she has published essays on other artists (Vermeer: Patience et songe de lumiere, 1993, for example), spiritual meditations (Les Echos du Silence) and a children's book (l'Encre du Poulpe). Most of her novels have been translated into English.

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