There are few if any voices more distinct in
contemporary French literature than that of Pascal
Quignard, a prolific writer of rare erudition and
elegance. Essayist, critic, translator, novelist, and
musician, Quignard attempts here an ambitious amalgam of
his many artistic styles in a fragmentary work that
defies the idea of genre. And his daring was rewarded in
2002 when "The Roving Shadows" became the first
non-novel in more than sixty years to win the Prix
Goncourt, France's most prestigious literary award. This
first book in Quignard's "Last Kingdom" series, "The
Roving Shadows" can be read as a long meditation on
reading and writing that strives to situate these
otherwise innocuous activities in a profound
relationship to sex and death. Writing and reading can
in fact be linked to our animal natures and artistic
strivings, to primal forces and culturally persistent
fascinations. With dexterity and inventiveness, Quignard
weaves together historical anecdotes, folktales from the
East and West, fragments of myth, and speculative
historical reconstructions. The whole, written in a
musical style not far removed from that of Couperin,
whose piano composition "Les Ombres" errantes lends the
book its title, coheres into a work of literature that
reverberates in the psyche long after one has laid it
down. "The Roving Shadows" is a rare and wondrous tour
de force that cements Quignard's reputation in
contemporary world literature. Available now for the
first time in English, this boldly adventurous work will
find a new and welcoming audience.
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