And Their Children After Them

Named a Best Book of the Year by The Times (UK) and the Los Angeles Public Library

Winner of the 2018 Goncourt Prize, this poignant coming-of-age tale captures the distinct feeling of summer in a region left behind by global progress.

August 1992. One afternoon during a heatwave in a desolate valley somewhere in eastern France, with its dormant blast furnaces and its lake, fourteen-year-old Anthony and his cousin decide to steal a canoe to explore the famous nude beach across the water. The trip ultimately takes Anthony to his first love and a summer that will determine everything that happens afterward.
 
Nicolas Mathieu conjures up a valley, an era, and the political journey of a young generation that has to forge its own path in a dying world. Four summers and four defining moments, from “Smells Like Teen Spirit” to the 1998 World Cup, encapsulate the hectic lives of the inhabitants of a France far removed from the centers of globalization, torn between decency and rage.

Nicolas Mathieu was born in Épinal, France, in 1978. His first novel, Aux animaux la guerre, was published in 2014 and adapted for television by Alain Tasma in 2018. He received the Goncourt Prize, France's most prestigious literary award, in 2018 for his second novel, And Their Children After Them. He lives in Nancy.

William Rodarmor has translated some forty-five books and screenplays in genres ranging from literary fiction to espionage and fantasy. His translations for Other Press include Article 353, by Tanguy Viel; The Blumkin Project, by Christian Salmon; The State of Israel vs. the Jews, by Sylvain Cypel; and And Their Children After Them, by Nicolas Mathieu, which won the 2021 Albertine translation prize.