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2006 Longlist

Piano

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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.

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Jean
Echenoa

ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Mark
Polizzotti

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Country
France
Original Language
French
Author
Publisher
The New Press
Translator
Mark Polizzotti

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