Oedipus on the Road: A Novel Format: Paperback

Oedipus on the Road is a unique, stunningly beautiful rendering of the journey that leads Oedipus from Thebes to Colonus––and from a world of exile to one of legend. This is the chapter that Sophocles never wrote, the redemptive passage of the fallen, blinded king to his final––this time glorious––encounter with destiny. Bauchau finds Oedipus stranded outside the walls of his former palace, eye sockets and soul still bleeding, and leads him––along with his daughter Antigone and the seductive shepherd-bandit Clitus, whose loyalty to the pair probably has less to do with his allegiance to Oedipus than his intentions toward his daughter––through a geographical and spiritual landscape littered with the physical, artistic, and mental rites of passage that separate Oedipus from immortality. It is a triumph of erudition folded into a dazzling feat of textured and lyrical storytelling reminiscent of Mary Renault, Umberto Eco, and Roberto Calasso. It is also a richly layered modern novel, impressive for its light touch and deftness with character and plot. The "crowning glory" (Libre Belgique) of an impressive career, Oedipus on the Road was greeted with celebratory reviews throughout Europe; it has been translated into seven languages.

Henry Bauchau is a writer, poet, and psychoanalyst who was born in 1913 in Belgium, where he lives today with his wife. He has spent much of his life in Paris, where he was a friend of Camus and Gide, and later of Lacan and Derrida. Bauchau’s novels and poetry have won several major French and Belgian literary prizes, and he was elected to the Belgian Royal Academy in 1990.