Vernon Subutex Three
On sale
27th May 2021
Price: £10.99
“A literary phenomenon” The Times
“Despentes’ writing is intelligent, outspoken, witty, shocking, propulsive and streetwise” Times Literary Supplement
THE FINAL VOLUME IN THE EPIC ROCK AND ROLL TRILOGY BY CULT AUTHOR VIRGINIE DESPENTES
Although it means leaving behind the community of disciples who have followed him on his travels and assembled at his raves and gatherings, Vernon Subutex is compelled to return to Paris to visit the dentist.
Once back in the city, he learns that Charles, his old friend from his days on the Paris streets, has died and left him half of a lottery win. But when Vernon returns to his disciples with news of this windfall, it does not take long before his followers start to turn on each other, and his good fortune provokes ruptures in his once harmonious community.
Meanwhile, storm clouds are gathering for Aïcha and Céleste: Laurent Dopalet is determined to make them pay for their attack on him, whatever it takes and whoever gets hurt.
And before long, the whole of Paris will be reeling in the wake of the terrorist atrocities of 2015 and 2016, and all the characters in this kaleidoscopic portrait of a city will be forced to a reckoning with each other.
Translated from the French by Frank Wynne
“Despentes’ writing is intelligent, outspoken, witty, shocking, propulsive and streetwise” Times Literary Supplement
THE FINAL VOLUME IN THE EPIC ROCK AND ROLL TRILOGY BY CULT AUTHOR VIRGINIE DESPENTES
Although it means leaving behind the community of disciples who have followed him on his travels and assembled at his raves and gatherings, Vernon Subutex is compelled to return to Paris to visit the dentist.
Once back in the city, he learns that Charles, his old friend from his days on the Paris streets, has died and left him half of a lottery win. But when Vernon returns to his disciples with news of this windfall, it does not take long before his followers start to turn on each other, and his good fortune provokes ruptures in his once harmonious community.
Meanwhile, storm clouds are gathering for Aïcha and Céleste: Laurent Dopalet is determined to make them pay for their attack on him, whatever it takes and whoever gets hurt.
And before long, the whole of Paris will be reeling in the wake of the terrorist atrocities of 2015 and 2016, and all the characters in this kaleidoscopic portrait of a city will be forced to a reckoning with each other.
Translated from the French by Frank Wynne
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Reviews
Invigorating ... there isn't really anything else like it right now
Either you're already onboard with this series and need no convincing, or you've somehow missed the fact that a cool French writer has been pumping out hilarious and corrosive novels about contemporary urban life at the center and fringes of Paris. Despentes writes like Armistead Maupin, but about aging Gen-Xers instead of hippies and New Agers.
Raw and rewarding
Brings the story of Vernon to a sometimes bleak, often very funny and possibly optimistic conclusion
Oddly magnificent
Despentes' achievement is French realism rebooted: a modern-day Comédie humaine stacked with profanity and fury
Despentes' writing is intelligent, outspoken, witty, shocking, propulsive and streetwise
A literary phenomenon . . . [an] outrageous, often funny and frequently foul-mouthed trilogy
Three addictive, intelligent volumes. Comedy, a way with words, and the collision of registers of language combine to make Vernon irresistible
Reflecting our chaotic times, Vernon Subutex 3 is a powerful, shocking, captivating work. Despentes completes her epic with a rare mastery. Where will she take us next?
A zigzagging novel that likes to let the intrigue wander, all the better to tug it back by the hair a few portraits later
A final volume even more explosive than the previous ones
An analysis of a startling harshness, which does not lessen the relentless, furious humanity pulsing through every page, every sentence
One of the most striking literary epics of the early 21st century