The Son of Man
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3.3 • 6 Ratings
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
In the soft morning light, a man, a woman, and a child drive to Les Roches, a dilapidated house, where the man grew up with his own ruthless father. After several years of absence, the man has reappeared in the life of his wife and their young son, intent on being a family again. While the mother watches the passing days with apprehension, the son discovers the enchantment of nature.
As the father’s hold over them intensifies, the return to their previous life and home seems increasingly impossible. Haunted by his past and consumed with jealousy, the father slips into a kind of madness that only the son will be able to challenge.
Written in flawless, cinematic prose, and brilliantly translated by Frank Wynne, The Son of Man is an exceptional novel of nature and wildness, and a blistering examination of how families fold together and break apart under duress.
Jean-Baptiste Del Amo was born in 1981 and is one of France’s most exciting writers. Animalia, his fourth novel, published by Text in 2019, won the Prix du Livre Inter 2017 and the 2020 Republic of Consciousness Prize, and was shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt, Prix Femina, Prix Medicis and Prix Wepler. The Son of Man, first published by Gallimard in 2021, is his second novel to appear in English.
Frank Wynne has translated works by authors including Michel Houellebecq, Patrick Modiano, Virginie Despentes and Jean-Baptiste Del Amo. His work has earned many awards, including the IMPAC Prize, the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, and the Premio Valle Inclán.
‘Del Amo gives a soul to this drama. We oscillate constantly between nature writing, a fable and a psychological novel.’ Livres Hebdo
‘The simple plot becomes as complex as the psychology of these human beasts...Rarely has this young author hit the right notes so perfectly.’ Le Monde
‘Many magnificent scenes—brief moments of light amidst the darkness and a fear so intense you could cut it with a knife.’ Le Figaro Littéraire
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Del Amo follows up his memorable Animalia with another arresting French rural gothic. The story begins with a prehistoric tableau in which a young boy, under the watchful eyes of his father, participates in his first deer hunt. The episode lends a mythic quality to Del Amo's narrative, which shifts to the present day as a father abruptly reenters the life of his nine-year-old son after an absence of six years. Eventually, he brings the boy and his mother to live in the "hushed, hostile, cold" cabin where he grew up. The surrounding woods are a source of fascination and terror to the boy, as is his father, an enigmatic stranger whose "glowering presence" puts his mother ill at ease. As the novel progresses, a sense of "indefinable menace" builds as the run-down house decays even further, the mother's health deteriorates, and the father's erratic behavior and explosive anger make his plans seem more sinister than they first appeared. Del Amo's signature florid style comes to life in Wynne's consummate translation, and at the heart of the lurid plot is a sensitive depiction of a boy's confusion. Once this gets its hooks in readers, it won't let go.
