Someone's Trying to Find You (The French List) - Hardcover

Augé, Marc

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 085742243X ISBN 13: 9780857422439

Publisher: Seagull Books, 2015

Synopsis

As he leaves the cinema where he has just watched Casablanca, one of his favorite films, Julien is approached by a mysterious young woman, Claire. Unbeknownst to Julien, Claire has been following him for several days. Outside the cinema she relays a cryptic message: “Someone’s trying to find you.” She insists that as a practitioner of the little-known science of narrative psychology she is acting as the anonymous individual’s intermediary. Slowly, Julien allows himself to be sucked into Claire’s investigation, and a strange odyssey through his past ensues.
In this novel by Marc Augé, a master of ethnofiction, the two meet up in Paris cafes to discuss the events of their lives—Occupation and Liberation, the Algerian War, and 1968—and Julien puzzles over who in his past could be searching for him. His ex-wife? An enigmatic lover from a seedy corner of Berlin? Soon, Julien realizes he is in the midst of a mysterious game of confession with a woman he knows nothing about. In a quick reversal, he shines the spotlight on Claire. Who is she and why are her questions so intense? Why does she seem focused on one particular year—1968?
            As the story unravels, we begin to understand that the puzzling nature of Claire’s quest proves to be a metaphor for other enigmas, including the mysteries of the heart. Beautifully written, Someone’s Trying to Find You is a haunting addition to Seagull’s French List, and it should not be missed.

About this title

About the Author:

Marc Augé, born in Poitiers in 1935, is one of France’s most eminent anthropologists. His books include No Fixed Abode, also published by Seagull Books, and Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity. Chris Turner is a writer and translator who lives in Birmingham, England. He has translated Jean-Paul Sartre’s The Aftermath of War, Portraits, and Critical Essays and André Gorz’s Ecologica and The Immaterial, all published by Seagull Books.

Review:

"Accessible and warm—a beautiful short read by someone who can both think sharply and write captivatingly." (European Literature Network)

About this edition

• Publisher: Seagull Books
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 085742243X
• ISBN 13: 9780857422439
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 152