Vernon Subutex 2, Virginie Despentes
Follow Vernon Subutex for a new episode with today's Book of the week, the second volume of Virginie Despentes's trilogy. Vernon Subutex 2 (previously published in France by Grasset) has been translated by Frank Wynne. It will be published by MacLehose Press tomorrow, for its UK launch!
Shorlisted in the UK for the Man Booker International Prize 2018 (Vernon Subutex 1), Vernon Subutex's trilogy is also winner of several French prizes such as the Prix Anaïs Nin (2015, Vernon Subutex 1), the Prix Landerneau (2015, Vernon Subutex), the Prix La Coupole (2015, Vernon Subutex 1) and the Prix Roman-News (2015, Vernon Subutex).
It’s a secret that concerns several people, and the only person who can unlock it is Vernon Subutex, former record shop proprietor turned homeless messiah and all-round guru, last seen hallucinating and feverish in the parc des Buttes Chaumont. He’s also the sole guardian of Alex Bleach’s confessional tapes.
Aïcha wants to know the truth behind the death of her mother, Vodka Satana. And she finds the bastards responsible, she wants to make them pay.
The Hyena wants to use the Bleach tapes to her advantage. She doesn’t want Laurent Dopalet to discover how badly she has double-crossed him.
Lauren Dopalet wants the Hyena to find and destroy the tapes. He wants to forget he ever knew Vodka Satana. He wants people to stop graffitiing his apartment with ludicrous allegations. Above all he wants people to understand: NONE OF THIS IS HIS FAULT.
VIRGINIE DESPENTES is a writer and filmmaker, and former maid, sex worker, and freelance rock journalist. Her first novel, Baise-Moi, the controversial rape-revenge story, was published in 1992 and adapted for film in 2000. Upon release it became the first film to be banned in France for twenty-eight years. She is the author of over fifteen further works, including Apocalypse Baby (2010) and Bye Bye Blondie (2004), and the autobiographical essay, King Kong Theory (2006).
FRANK WYNNE is a prize-winning translator from Spanish and French. His translations from the Spanish include novels by Carlos Acosta, Javier Cercas, Tomás González, Tomás Eloy Martínez and Arturo Pérez-Reverte. His translations from the French include fiction by Michel Houellebecq, Patrick Modiano and Boualem Sansal. He lives in London.
At the Institut français, we were very delighted to be hosting Fishbach last month for an exceptionnal bilingual reading and concert on the occasion of our French live literature festival, the Beyond Words Festival. Nominated for the Victoire de la musique award 2017, Fishbach will be on the cast of the new TV adaptation of the book.
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