In this shrewd, timely novel with the allure of old-school noir, an aging boxer and his daughter fight back against political corruption and sexual abuse. At 40, the great boxer Max Le Corre was enjoying a renaissance, back at the top of the ticket after a long absence. When he wasn’t in the ring, he worked as a driver for the mayor, Quentin Le Bars. Above all, he was a father to Laura, his 20-year-old daughter who recently returned home after trying her hand at modeling. Quentin had helped Max when he was down on his luck, a seemingly washed-up fighter, and now Max hoped he would help Laura find her bearings in town. But Laura’s meeting with Quentin reveals a darker side to the politician, setting in motion a chain of events that will pit Max against his benefactor. With deceptively simple, evocative prose, Tanguy Viel has crafted a brilliant takedown of the power imbalances that allow #MeToo situations to occur and fester.
Tanguy Viel Book order






- 2024
- 2021
The Disappearance of Jim Sullivan
- 92 pages
- 4 hours of reading
"Tanguy Viel's parody/pastiche of the American novel is subtle and experimental; it tells a story at the same time as it implicitly poses questions about the narrative structure it is deploying." --The French Review In The Disappearance of Jim Sullivan, disappearance is both a theme and a stylistic device. Indeed, this publication narrates the disappearance of Dwayne Koster, who, fascinated by the story of Jim Sullivan, commits suicide in the New Mexico desert which was the setting of the rocker's disappearance in 1975. But this novel is for the most part set in the metanarrative tale of its own genesis, and, as a result, is partially eclipsed: its -fictitious- author doesn't relate it in its entirety and keeps adding bits and pieces of first drafts and preliminary sketches to his text, thus blurring its boundaries. Tanguy Viel's work can therefore be perceived as a double response, existential and aesthetic, to the question of the end.
- 2020
Can I Keep It? Small Pets Guide
- 168 pages
- 6 hours of reading
From gerbils, lizards, and snails to spiders, fish, and frogs, this is the coolest guide for children to learn how to take care of the coolest pets!
- 2019
Article 353
- 160 pages
- 6 hours of reading
Best International Crime Novel of the Year – Crime Reads / Lit Hub This atmospheric noir novel retraces the steps that led to a murder off the coast of Brittany, probing the relationship between law and justice. In a depressed town on France's northern coast, a man named Martial Kermeur has been arrested for the murder of real estate developer Antoine Lazenec after throwing him overboard. Called before a judge, Kermeur goes back to the beginning to explain what brought him to this desperate point: his divorce, his son's acting out, layoffs at his job, and, above all, Lazenec’s dazzling project for a seaside resort. The temptation to invest all of your severance pay in a beautiful apartment with a view of the sea is great. But still, it has to be built. In this subtle, enthralling novel, Tanguy Viel examines not only the psychology of a crime, but also the larger social ills that may offer its justification.