We never fall twice into the same abyss. But we always fall the same way, in a mixture of ridicule and dread. We so desperately want not to fall that we grapple for a handhold, screaming. With their heels they crush our fingers, with their beaks they smash our teeth and peck out our eyes. The abyss is bordered by tall mansions. And there stands History, a reasonable goddess, a frozen statue in the middle of the town square. Dried bunches of peonies are her annual tribute; her daily gratuity, bread crumbs for the birds.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Éric Vuillard is a writer and filmmaker born in Lyon in 1968 who has written nine award-winning books, including Conquistadors (winner of the 2010 Prix Ignatius J. Reilly), and La bataille d’Occident and Congo (both of which received the 2012 Prix Franz-Hessel and the 2013 Prix Valery-Larbaud). He won the 2017 Prix Goncourt, France’s most prestigious literary prize, for L’ordre du jour.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Mark Polizzotti has translated more than fifty books from the French, including works by Gustave Flaubert, Patrick Modiano, Marguerite Duras, André Breton, and Raymond Roussel. A Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the recipient of a 2016 American Academy of Arts & Letters Award for Literature, he is the author of eleven books, including Revolution of the Mind: The Life of André Breton, which was a finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for Best Nonfiction; Luis Buñuel’s Los Olvidados; Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited; and Sympathy for the Traitor: A Translation Manifesto. He directs the publications program at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Also by Éric Vuillard
in translation
Sorrow of the Earth
First published in the UK in paperback 2018 by Picador
This electronic edition published 2019 by Picador
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
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ISBN 978-1-5098-8998-3
Copyright © Actes Sud 2017
Translation copyright © Mark Polizzotti 2018
Cover image © Culture Club / Contributor / Getty Images
Cover design © Stuart Wilson Picador Art Department
Author photograph © Melania Avanzato
The right of Éric Vuillard to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Originally published in French 2017 as L’ordre du jour by Actes Sud, Arles, France.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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