On the Line

Poetic and political, lyrical and realistic, Joseph Ponthus' spirited elegy is at once surprising, captivating and affecting * Telerama * It is not every day that one witnesses the birth of a writer * France 5 La Grande Librairie * A work that is powerful, clever, benevolent, optimistic even. Essential reading * Causette * Be prepared for a battering of the senses with vivid, grisly prose * France Magazine * A lasting gift to the French - and now the English - literary landscape. You don't need to be a poetry aficionado to be stirred by the understated beauty of Ponthus's writing, and Stephanie Smee's superb translation, nor to be moved by the world that Ponthus paints and probes. A world in which the vicissitudes of factory life are illuminated with wit and wisdom, and joy can be found twinkling where you least expect it * European Literature Network * Writing from real-life experience, Ponthus details the drudgery, exhaustion, frustration, horror, stress, satisfaction and occasional joy found working in an industrial food factory. Using an experimental style that's half verse, half prose, he makes this refrigerated, sanitised, fluorescent-lit world feel beautiful, even romantic. I found myself dropping the book into my lap for minutes at a time just to process just how fucked-up his experience is. This is a powerful - but not preachy or guilt-tripping - window into an ugly, opaque system we're all part of * Broadsheet *

Joseph Ponthus (1978-2021) worked for over ten years as a social worker and special needs teacher in the suburbs of Paris. He was co-author of Nous... La Cite (The Suburbs Are Ours) and his masterpiece A la Ligne (On the Line) was published in France in 2019 to great acclaim. It won several literary prizes, including the Grand Prix RTL/Lire and the Prix Regine Deforges, and became a major bestseller. Stephanie Smee left a career in law to work as a literary translator. Her publications span nineteenth-century French children's literature to her recent translation of Hannelore Cayre's prize-winning work of literary crime fiction, The Godmother. Her translation of rediscovered WWII memoir, No Place to Lay One's Head, won the JQ-Wingate Prize.