2011 Nominated
Brodeck’s Report
ABOUT
THE BOOK
From his village in post-war France, Brodeck makes his solitary journeys into the mountains to collect data on the natural environment. Day by day he also reconstructs his own life, all but lost in the years he spent in a camp during the war. No-one had expected to see him again. One day, a flamboyant stranger rides into the village, upsetting the fragile balance of everyday life. Soon he is named the Anderer, “the other”, and tensions rise until, one night, the newcomer is murdered. Brodeck is instructed to write an account of the events leading to his death, but his report delivers much more than the bare facts: it becomes the story of a community coming to terms with the legacy of enemy occupation.
ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR John
Cullen
John Cullen in the translator of more than twenty books from the French, Italian, German, and Spanish. His translations of Margaret Mazzantini’s Don’t Move (from the Italian) and Yasmina Khadra’s The Swallows of Kabul (from the French) were short-listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Cullen is the also the co-author with Alexandra de Borchgrave of Villard: The Life and Times of an American Titan. Originally from New Orleans, he lives in Connecticut with the writer Valerie Martin.
John Cullen in the translator of more than twenty books from the French, Italian, German, and Spanish. His translations of Margaret Mazzantini’s Don’t Move (from the Italian) and Yasmina Khadra’s The Swallows of Kabul (from the French) were short-listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Cullen is the also the co-author with Alexandra de Borchgrave of Villard: The Life and Times of an American Titan. Originally from New Orleans, he lives in Connecticut with the writer Valerie Martin.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
An extraordinary work, a stunning and utterly mesmerizing multi-faced fable which continues to haunt the reader long after putting down the book.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Country
France
Original Language
French
Publisher
MacLehose Press
Translator
John Cullen
Nominating Library