A Void Paperback - 2005

Name: A Void (Verba Mundi)
Price: 4.05 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Georges Perec
ISBN: 9781567922967

by Georges Perec; Gilbert Adair (Translator)

Add to wish list

Browse more copies for sale ↓

Reader reviews for A Void

Write a review for this book

Important Terms and Guidelines

Please focus on the book’s content and context. Also, add any personal comments as to how you enjoyed the book. Substantiate your likes and dislikes. You may make comparisons to other books.
Reviews must be at least 140 characters in length.
Please do not reveal critical plot elements.
This is not a help line. Contact customer support if you need help.

Your review must not include:

Obscenities, discriminatory language, or other insulting language not suitable for public domain
Advertisements, “spam” content, or references to other products, offers or websites.
Email addresses, URLs, phone numbers, physical addresses or other contact information.
Overly critical comments about other reviews or reviewers
Time-sensitive material (i.e. promotional tours, seminars, lectures, etc.)
Availability, price, or alternative ordering/shipping information

From the publisher

Winner of the Scott Moncrieff Prize for translation

A mind-bending and mysterious comedy from the author of Life A User's Manual.

A Void is a great linguistic adventure and a metaphysical whodunit, chock-full of plots and subplots, of trails in pursuit of trails, all displaying Georges Perec's virtuosity as a verbal magician. It is also an outrageous verbal stunt: a 300-page novel that never once employs the letter E.

The year is 1968, and as France is torn apart by social and political anarchy, the noted eccentric and insomniac Anton Vowl goes missing. Ransacking his Paris flat, his best friends scour his diary for clues to his whereabouts. At first glance these pages reveal nothing but Vowl's penchant for word games, especially for "lipograms," compositions in which the use of a particular letter is suppressed. But as the friends work out Vowl's verbal puzzles, and as they investigate various leads discovered among the entries, they too disappear, one by one by one, and under the most mysterious circumstances . . .

A book that only Georges Perec could have conceived, The New York Times called A Void, "a rollicking story, wildly amusing and easily accessible to all of us who don't mind slipping, sliding and being tripped."

Details

Title A Void
Author Georges Perec; Gilbert Adair (Translator)
Binding Paperback
Edition First Thus
Pages 304
Volumes 1
Language ENG
Publisher Verba Mundi, Jaffrey, New Hampshire, U.S.A.
Publication date 2005-11
ISBN 9781567922967 / 1567922961
Weight 0.8 lbs (0.36 kg)
Dimensions 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.79 in (21.59 x 13.97 x 2.01 cm)
Category Fiction - Mystery/ Detective
Library of Congress subjects Paris (France), Gothic fiction
Library of Congress Catalogue Number 2005025124
Dewey Decimal Code FIC

About the author

Georges Perec was a French essayist, novelist, memoirist, and filmmaker. Born in Paris in 1936, the child of Polish Jews, his father died as soldier in the Second World War and his mother was killed in the Holocaust. Much of his work dealt with themes of identity, loss, absence--including his most celebrated work, Life A User's Manual.

In addition to being honored by the Prix Renaudot (1965), the Prix Jean Vigo (1974), the Prix Mdicis (1978), and the French postal service (2002), both an asteroid and a street in Paris were named in his honor--as well as a Google Doodle on his 80th birthday.

Gilbert Adair was a Scottish novelist, poet, film critic and journalist--who took on the "fiendish" translation of Georges Perec's postmodern novel, A Void, in which the letter E is not used.