Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio Books

From the WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE 'A work of bewitching beauty and humanity' Chinua Achebe 'From that moment on, there was to be a before and an after Africa for me.' In 1948, a young J. M. G. Le Cl zio left behind a still-devastated Europe with his mother and brother to join his father, a military doctor in Nigeria, from whom he had been separated by the war. In his characteristically intimate, poetic voice, the Nobel Prize-winning author relates both the child's dazzled discovery of freedom in the African savannah and the torment of recalling his fractured relationship with a rigid, authoritarian father. Now available in English for the first time, The African is a poignant memoir of a lost childhood and a tribute to a father whom Le Cl zio never really knew. His legacy is the passionate anti-colonialism that the author has carried through his life.

A haunting, lyrical and mythic novel of a man haunted by visions of his ideal childhood, from the winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize for literature, J. M. G. Le Clezio.

While both Esther and Nejma want peace, each has a different experience during the founding of Israel; Esther is a Jewish girl who participtes in the founding, and Nejma is a Palestinian who becomes a refugee.

Upon an immense stretch of flat ground at the mouth of a river bathed in sunlight rises Hyperpolis. Each of us will see ourselves reflected in the characters who move mindlessly about Hyperpolis, but The Giants is a call to rebellion.

In "War," Bea B navigates a vast, icy landscape and reflects on the pervasive violence throughout human history, including Vietnam. The narrative explores not just armed conflict but a broader state of violence, as Bea seeks to uncover the origins of this evil.

Filled with cosmic ruminations, lyrical description and virtuoso games of language and the imagination, this title explores humankind's place in the universe, the relationship between us and the Earth we inhabit and, ultimately, how to live.

While presenting the Nobel Prize in Literature to J. M. G. Le Cl zio in 2008, the Nobel Committee called him the "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization." In Mydriasis, the author proves himself to be precisely that as he takes us on a phantasmagoric journey into parallel worlds and whirling visions. Dwelling on darkness, light, and human vision, Le Cl zio's richly poetic prose composes a mesmerizing song and a dizzying exploration of the universe--a universe not unlike the abysses explored by the highly idiosyncratic Belgian poet Henri Michaux. Michaux is, in fact, at the heart of To the Icebergs. Fascinated by his writing, Le Cl zio includes Michaux's "poem of the poem," "Iniji," thereby allowing the poet's voice to emerge by itself. What follows is much more than a simple analysis of the poem; rather, it is an act of complete insight and understanding, a personal appropriation and elevation of the work. Written originally in the 1970s and now translated into English for the first time, these two brief, incisive and haunting texts will further strengthen the reputation of one of the world's greatest and most visionary living writers.

The international bestseller, by the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2008, available for the first time in English translation. Hailed by the Swedish Academy as Le Clezio's 'definitive breakthrough as a novelist', Desert is an epic novel that spans the twentieth century and ranges across two continents, from the North African desert to the streets of Marseilles.

Onitsha tells the story of Fintan, a youth who travels to Africa in 1948 with his Italian mother to join the English father he has never met. Fintan is initially enchanted by the exotic world he discovers in Onitsha, a bustling city prominently situated on the eastern bank of the Niger River. But gradually he comes to recognize the intolerance and brutality of the colonial system. His youthful point of view provides the novel with a notably direct, horrified perspective on racism and colonialism. In the words of translator Alison Anderson, Onitsha is remarkable for its “almost mythological evocation of local history and beliefs.” It is full of atmosphere—sights, sounds, smells —and at times the author’s sentences seem to flow with the dreamy languor of the river itself. But J. M. G. Le Clézio “never lets us forget the harsh realities of life nor the subsequent tragedy of war.” A startling account—and indictment—of colonialism, Onitsha is also a work of clear, forthright prose that ably portrays both colonial Nigeria and a young boy’s growing outrage.

Embark on a journey through a nameless necropolis, exploring diverse landscapes such as deserts, seas, and mountains, while experiencing countless adventures across four continents.