Charlotte Mandell on Les ombres errantes by Pascal Quignard

By Charlotte Mandell — Published on December 7, 2009

If I had to choose one, I guess it would have to be Les ombres errantes by Pascal Quignard, which won the Prix Goncourt in 2002. It’s one in an ongoing series of books called Le Dernier Royaume. Quignard is a difficult author to translate because he demands a lot of the reader, including a willingness to listen and be quiet—his writing is very meditative and reflective, but can at times be beautiful and lyrical. It’s amazing how few of his books have been translated into English—only a few out of over forty. He’s best known because of the film Tous les matins du monde, but that’s not at all representative of his work as a whole.

Charlotte Mandell is the translator of Proust, Blanchot, and, most recently, The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell.

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• Charlotte Mandell on Les ombres errantes by Pascal Quignard