The Theory of Clouds
ABOUT
THE BOOK
Akira Kumo, miraculous survivor of Hiroshima, reinvented himself as someone twenty years younger. Now an eccentric couturier and collector of all literature having to do with clouds and meteorology, he hires Virginie, a young librarian, to catalog his library. While she works, he tells her stories of those who have devoted their lives to clouds: the Quaker Luke Howard, contemporary of Napoleon and Goethe, who first classified clouds; the painter Carmichael (based on John Constable), who spent a year painting clouds; and the mysterious Abercrombie, a photographer who cataloged clouds around the world. Virginie’s trip to London in search of the suppressed Abercrombie protocol becomes a quest no less wondrous and strange than Kumo’s own.
ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Timothy
Bent
Timothy Bent is an accomplished literary translator and publishing editor known for translating French literature and poetry into English. He notably translated Amélie Nothomb’s novel The Character of Rain and Stéphane Audeguy’s The Theory of Clouds
Timothy Bent is an accomplished literary translator and publishing editor known for translating French literature and poetry into English. He notably translated Amélie Nothomb’s novel The Character of Rain and Stéphane Audeguy’s The Theory of Clouds
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
A sensual, erotic, hypnotic, witty novel. Filled with stories both true and fanciful. Equally buoyant and weighty, unconventional.