Overview

A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year The Investigator, a humble and ordinary man, has been ordered to conduct an Investigation into a series of suicides that have taken place at the Enterprise—a huge, sprawling complex in an unnamed Town. But the Investigator’s train is delayed. When he finally arrives, no one is there to meet him at the station. When he reaches the Enterprise, he is denied entrance. The harder the Investigator tries to fulfill his task, the more senseless obstacles he encounters: regulations hamstring him, street layouts befuddle him, and—perhaps most unnervingly—he senses someone watching and recording his every movement. In this highly original and absorbing work, Claudel turns his masterful storytelling toward a sweeping critique of the contemporary world. Like Kafka, Beckett, and Huxley, Claudel’s dark fable shows that the most looming questions of our time can only be countered with piercing intelligence and considerable humor.

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9780307946706

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Reviews

A world that is by turns farcical, absurdist, allegorical. . . . Skillfully evokes the insidious, modern fear that we, like the Investigator, are playing bit parts in some vast, incomprehensible system. --The Wall Street Journal Impressive . . . a self-aware book about self-awareness, about the process of becoming a person, the search for self. . . . [Claudel] has managed a rare trick. --The Daily Telegraph (London) Darkly comic, pleasingly strange. --The Daily Beast

French writer Philippe Claudel begins The Investigation with a postmodernist wink and nod ... The novel is frequently very funny, but it also skillfully evokes the insidious, modern fear that we, like the Investigator, are playing bit parts in some vast, incomprehensible system. <br>-- The Wall Street Journal <br><br> Amusing and affecting ... Despite its far-from-realist mode and its parable of life under late capitalism, The Investigation is no allegory. It's too sharp and too funny. And despite its setting in a city that deliberately evokes all cities and no particular city, The Investigation resists every tendency toward ponderous moralism, instead marking each apparent injustice with a light, but never unsympathetic, touch. <br>--Bookslut.com<br><br>Praise for Brodeck<br><br> Arrives like a fresh, why-haven't-we-known-him discovery, revealing Philippe Claudel to be as dazzling on the page as he is on the screen. <br>-- The New York Times Book Review <br><br> A haunting, intensely claustrophobic allegory about intolerance, trauma, and guilt. <br>-- San Francisco Chronicle <br><br> Deeply wise and classically beautiful . . . It is a modern masterpiece. <br>-- The Daily Telegraph<br> <br> Original, brilliant, and disturbing . . . Claudel is a novelist of ideas, in the French tradition. <br>-- The Times (London)<br><br> In John Cullen's deft translation, Claudel's writing is lucid and passionate. . . . An excellent novel. <br>-- The Guardian <br><br><br> From the Hardcover edition.

A world that is by turns farcical, absurdist, allegorical. . . . Skillfully evokes the insidious, modern fear that we, like the Investigator, are playing bit parts in some vast, incomprehensible system. <i>The Wall Street Journal</i> Impressive . . . a self-aware book about self-awareness, about the process of becoming a person, the search for self. . . . [Claudel] has managed a rare trick. <i>The Daily Telegraph</i> (London) Darkly comic, pleasingly strange. <i>The Daily Beast</i></p>

A world that is by turns farcical, absurdist, allegorical. . . . Skillfully evokes the insidious, modern fear that we, like the Investigator, are playing bit parts in some vast, incomprehensible system. --The Wall Street Journal Impressive . . . a self-aware book about self-awareness, about the process of becoming a person, the search for self. . . . [Claudel] has managed a rare trick. --The Daily Telegraph (London) Darkly comic, pleasingly strange. --The Daily Beast A world that is by turns farcical, absurdist, allegorical. . . . Skillfully evokes the insidious, modern fear that we, like the Investigator, are playing bit parts in some vast, incomprehensible system. The Wall Street Journal Impressive . . . a self-aware book about self-awareness, about the process of becoming a person, the search for self. . . . [Claudel] has managed a rare trick. The Daily Telegraph (London) Darkly comic, pleasingly strange. The Daily Beast A world that is by turns farcical, absurdist, allegorical. . . . Skillfully evokes the insidious, modern fear that we, like the Investigator, are playing bit parts in some vast, incomprehensible system. -- The Wall Street Journal Impressive . . . a self-aware book about self-awareness, about the process of becoming a person, the search for self. . . . [Claudel] has managed a rare trick. -- The Daily Telegraph (London) Darkly comic, pleasingly strange. -- The Daily Beast French writer Philippe Claudel begins The Investigation with a postmodernist wink and nod ... The novel is frequently very funny, but it also skillfully evokes the insidious, modern fear that we, like the Investigator, are playing bit parts in some vast, incomprehensible system. -- The Wall Street Journal Amusing and affecting ... Despite its far-from-realist mode and its parable of life under late capitalism, The Investigation is no allegory. It's too sharp and too funny. And despite its setting in a city that deliberately evokes all cities and no particular city, The Investigation resists every tendency toward ponderous moralism, instead marking each apparent injustice with a light, but never unsympathetic, touch. --Bookslut.comPraise for Brodeck Arrives like a fresh, why-haven't-we-known-him discovery, revealing Philippe Claudel to be as dazzling on the page as he is on the screen. -- The New York Times Book Review A haunting, intensely claustrophobic allegory about intolerance, trauma, and guilt. -- San Francisco Chronicle Deeply wise and classically beautiful . . . It is a modern masterpiece. -- The Daily Telegraph Original, brilliant, and disturbing . . . Claudel is a novelist of ideas, in the French tradition. -- The Times (London) In John Cullen's deft translation, Claudel's writing is lucid and passionate. . . . An excellent novel. -- The Guardian From the Hardcover edition.

<p> A world that is by turns farcical, absurdist, allegorical. . . . Skillfully evokes the insidious, modern fear that we, like the Investigator, are playing bit parts in some vast, incomprehensible system. -- The Wall Street Journal <br><br> Impressive . . . a self-aware book about self-awareness, about the process of becoming a person, the search for self. . . . [Claudel] has managed a rare trick. -- The Daily Telegraph (London)<br><br> Darkly comic, pleasingly strange. -- The Daily Beast

A world that is by turns farcical, absurdist, allegorical. . . . Skillfully evokes the insidious, modern fear that we, like the Investigator, are playing bit parts in some vast, incomprehensible system. -- The Wall Street Journal Impressive . . . a self-aware book about self-awareness, about the process of becoming a person, the search for self. . . . [Claudel] has managed a rare trick. -- The Daily Telegraph (London) Darkly comic, pleasingly strange. -- The Daily Beast

Author Information

Philippe Claudel is the author of many novels, including Brodeck, which won the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens in 2007 and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2010. His novel By a Slow River has been translated into thirty-two languages and was awarded the Prix Renaudot in 2003 and the Elle Readers’ Literary Prize in 2004. Claudel also wrote and directed the 2008 film I’ve Loved You So Long, starring Kristin Scott Thomas, which won a BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language.

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