Product Description
"Not only are we no longer capable of seeing the tragedies that have befallen us, we are incapable even of registering our own incapacity to do so . . . [but] Duteurtre sees, and records all that he sees."-Milan Kundera
"A joy to read, as much as it is alarming."-Le Monde
In the over-legislated world of this outrageous comedy, a death row inmate becomes a darling of the media-and the tobacco conglomerates-after he demands his right to a final cigarette in a smoke-free prison.
Meanwhile, a little girl accuses a petty municipal bureaucrat of sexual perversion when she catches him sneaking a cigarette. Incredulously, he realizes that in this world where children are not just kings, but tyrants, a cigarette could lead him to the electric chair.
At the cutting edge of European fiction, young, hip French author Benoît Duteurtre creates a world disconcertingly close to our own-yet wildly askew-in this daring and antic comedy.
About the Author
Winner of the prestigious Prix Medici award, and author of 11 novels translated in 13 languages, Duteurtre has been acclaimed by Milan Kundera for his edgy, incisive humor, and called "a cultural bomb thrower" for his satiric take on modern life.