The Victoria System
ABOUT
THE BOOK
David Kolski never sleeps with the same woman twice – apart from his wife.
Then he meets Victoria. Head of people at a multinational company, by day she is a ruthless executive in a lightning-paced, high-pressured whirlwind of power and productivity. By night she likes good wine, luxurious hotel rooms, and abandoning herself to her sexual fantasies.
David is soon addicted. Under crushing pressure at work to oversee the construction of a huge Paris tower-block in near-impossible circumstances, he takes new vigour and inspiration from his hard-headed capitalist lover. He works harder, faster and better, and then escapes to indulge in the most intense sexual passion he’s ever experienced.
But when Victoria offers to use her position to help him in his career, a dark shadow falls over their affair. Is she really capable of helping anyone other than herself, or is she hiding something from him? And who are the two men in the Audi he keeps seeing, always a few cars behind him?
Complex, compelling and ambitiously structured, The Victoria System is a daringly sensual story of an obsession. Part erotica; part thriller; part novel of ideas, like a series of slightly angled mirrors held up to our globalised, capitalist society, the twists and turns of its narrative create a dazzling interplay of reflections and compel us to question the assumptions and forces of our modern world.
ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Sam
Taylor
Sam Taylor is a novelist and literary translator. His five novels have reached an international audience, and his award-winning translations include works by Laurent Binet, Leïla Slimani and Marcel Proust. Born in England, Sam was a writer and editor at The Observer for eight years before spending a decade in France. He now lives in the United States with his family.
Sam Taylor is a novelist and literary translator. His five novels have reached an international audience, and his award-winning translations include works by Laurent Binet, Leïla Slimani and Marcel Proust. Born in England, Sam was a writer and editor at The Observer for eight years before spending a decade in France. He now lives in the United States with his family.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
An ample and tragic novel, mixing sex, power games and onirism. A merciless mirror and a vitriolic portrait of our time. Ambitious, complex, Éric Reinhardt has completely mastered the subject. It is audacious, cheeky, resonant, disburbing, heady and last but not the least, amazing.