ABOUT
THE BOOK

Max Delmarc, age fifty, is a famous concert pianist with two problems: the first, severe stage fright for which the second, alcohol, is the only cure. In this unparalleled comedy by Prix Goncourt-winner Jean Echenoz, we journey with Max from the trials of his everyday life to his untimely death and on into the afterlife.

After a brief stay in purgatory – part luxury hotel, part minimum-security prison supervised by dead celebrities – Max is sentenced to “the urban zone”, a partition of hell bearing an uncanny resemblance to his native Paris on an eternally gloomy day.

Forbidden to reveal his true identity, Max engages in a hapless struggle to piece his former life back together while searching in vain for the woman he once loved.