In June 2021, a senseless event upends the lives of hundreds of men and women, all passengers on a flight from Paris to New York. Among them: Blake, a respectable family man, though he works as a contract killer; Slimboy, a Nigerian pop star tired of living a lie; Joanna, a formidable lawyer whose flaws have caught up with her; and Victor Miesel, a critically acclaimed yet commercially unsuccessful writer who suddenly becomes a cult hit.
All of them believed they had double lives. None imagined just how true that was.
A virtuoso novel where logic confronts magic, The Anomaly explores the part of ourselves that eludes us. This witty variation on the doppelgänger theme, which takes us on a journey from Lagos and Mumbai to the White House, proves to be Hervé Le Tellier's most ambitious work yet.
In June 2021, a senseless event upends the lives of hundreds of men and women, all passengers on a flight from Paris to New York. Among them: Blake, a respectable family man, though he works as a contract killer; Slimboy, a Nigerian pop star tired of living a lie; Joanna, a formidable lawyer whose flaws have caught up with her; and Victor Miesel, a critically acclaimed yet commercially unsuccessful writer who suddenly becomes a cult hit.
All of them believed they had double lives. None imagined just how true that was.
A virtuoso novel where logic confronts magic, The Anomaly explores the part of ourselves that eludes us. This witty variation on the doppelgänger theme, which takes us on a journey from Lagos and Mumbai to the White House, proves to be Hervé Le Tellier's most ambitious work yet.
I could see immediately why this won the Goncourt. As much political satire as psychological exploration masquerading as science fiction, the end of this novel will make you gasp.
(I read the English translation by Adriana Hunter.)
The premise is fantastical. The novel captures quite well just how people respond to the fantastical: they get used to it and do their best to carry on.
Read the French version. So how do you react when you find yourself facing yourself literally, meaning another version of you, same DNA and same memories? Descartes' credo becomes " I think that I think therefore I am".
Read the French version. So how do you react when you find yourself facing yourself literally, meaning another version of you, same DNA and same memories? Descartes' credo becomes " I think that I think therefore I am".
