Maylis de Kerangal – författare

Coca, Southern California. A small town on a wild river, at the margins of the red-rocked desert and the forest where the last of the state''s Native Americans still make their home.When Boa, the charismatic new mayor, decides to put Coca on the map, he plans a monumental new project: a six-lane bridge, two hundred metres high, designed and destined to catapult the city into the third millennium.Workers from across the globe flock to California: to earn a living, to escape their pasts, to bear witness to man''s mastery of nature. But the project''s majestic scope has no regard for the legacy of this ancient land, and within this monochrome Babel festers a very human cocktail of fears and passions. At once timeless and yet exquisitely of its moment, Maylis De Kerangal''s multi-award-winning novel follows its broad cast of construction workers and architects, diggers and dreamers, as they navigate both the intricacies of their project and the depths of the human heart.Translated from the French by Jessica Moore

Winner of the Wellcome Book Prize 2017.Longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2016. Now a major French film, REPARER LES VIVANTS/HEAL THE LIVING, directed by Katell Quillevere and starring Emmanuelle Seigner.A twenty-four-hour whirlwind of death and life.In the depths of a winter''s night, the heart of Simon Limbeau is resting, readying itself for the day to come. In a few hours'' time, just before six, his alarm will go off and he will venture into the freezing dawn, drive down to the beach, and go surfing with his friends. A trip he has made a hundred times and yet, today, the heart of Simon Limbeau will encounter a very different course.But for now, the black-box of his body is free to leap, swell, melt and sink, just as it has throughout the years of Simon''s young life.5.50 a.m.This is his heart.And here is its story.Translated from the French by Jessica Moore

"One of contemporary fiction''s most gifted sentence builders" Beejay Silcox, GuardianBehind the ornate doors of 30, rue du Métal in Brussels, twenty students begin their apprenticeship in the art of decorative painting - that art of tricksters and counterfeiters, where each knot in a plank of wood hides a secret and every vein in a slab of marble tells a story.Among these students are Kate, Jonas and Paula Karst. Together, during a relentless year of study, they will learn the techniques of reproducing materials in paint, and the intensity of their experience - the long hours in the studio, the late nights, the conversations, arguments, parties, romances - will cement a friendship that lasts long after their formal studies end.For Paula, her initiation into the art of trompe l''œil will take her back through time, from her own childhood memories, to the ancient formations of the materials whose depiction she strives to master. And from the institute in Brussels where her studies begin, to her work on the film sets of Cinecittà, and finally the prehistoric caves of Lascaux, her experiences will transcend art, gradually revealing something of her own inner world, and the secret, unreachable desires of her heart.A coming-of-age novel like no other: an atmospheric and highly aesthetic portrayal of love, art and craftsmanship from the acclaimed author of Birth of a Bridge and Mend the Living.Translated from the French by Jessica Moore

Seven interconnected stories orbit a central novella to create a collection of tales which resonate with the sound of women''s voices.A widower struggles to erase his wife''s voice from his answering machine. Two old friends meet after a period apart and find they can no longer fit into their habitual rhythm. A woman records herself reading a poem for two sisters who obsessively collect voice recordings.At the heart of Canoes is "Mustang", in which a woman moves with her family to the suburbs of Denver, where her partner takes up a research post. As her husband and child fit seamlessly into their new lives, she remains aloof, consumed by a feeling of not belonging, and observing as her loved ones change and adapt to these alien surroundings.In this moving and deeply poetic collection, Maylis de Kerangal casts light on the balance between life and death, exploring the traces we leave upon each other''s lives and creating space for women of all ages to be heard.Translated from the French by Jessica Moore