The Son of Man
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- 5,99 €
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- 5,99 €
Publisher Description
After several years of absence, a man reappears in the life of a woman and their young son. Intent on being a family again, he drives them to Les Roches, a dilapidated house in the mountains, where the man grew up with his own ruthless father. While the mother watches the passing days with apprehension, the son discovers the enchantment of nature, savage and bewitching. 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 man slowly sinks into madness and his son has no choice but to challenge his father in an attempt to save something of their humanity. Written in flawless, cinematic prose and brilliantly translated by Frank Wynne, The Son of Man is an exceptional novel of nature and wildness that traces how violence is inherited from one generation to the next, and a blistering examination of how families fold together and break apart under duress.
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.
