Fear and Trembling
Publisher
:
Albin Michel
Parution date
:
1999
EAN
:
9782226109507
Description
According to ancient Japanese protocol, foreigners deigning to approach the emperor were to adopt a tone of fear and trembling. Terror and self-abasement conveyed respect. Amélie, our well-intentioned and eager young Western heroine in this novel, goes to Japan to spend a year working at the Yumimoto Corporation. Returning to the land where she was born is the fulfillment of a dream for Amélie; working there turns into a comic nightmare.
Poor Amélie can do nothing right. She starts at the bottom of the corporate ladder and immediately reveals a genius for working her way down. She delivers mail, serves tea, updates calendars, photocopies the same pages a thousand times; her job description, fluid at best, runs relentlessly downstream. But of Amélie’s many failings and ill-advised breaches of protocol, the worst by far is becoming infatuated with her immediate superior, the beautiful, impeccable, and implacable Miss Mori.
Hailed by critics in France, where it won a number of prestigious awards and was a bestseller, Fear and Trembling is alternately disturbing and hilarious, unbelievable and shatteringly convincing. At its core lies a clash of wills and a war of nerves that will keep readers clutching tight to the pages of this taut little novel, caught in the throes of fear, trembling, and, ultimately, delight.
Fear and Trembling won the Grand Prix of the Académie Française and the Prix Internet du Livre.
Author
Amélie Nothomb : Amélie Nothomb is an international best-selling author and has been translated into 26 languages. Of her eleven previous novels, five have been translated into English: The Stranger Next Door (Henry Holt), Loving Sabotage (New Directions), winner of the “Grand Prix de l’Académie Française” Fear and Trembling, (St. Martin’s), The Character of Rain, (St. Martin’s), and The Book of Proper Names (forthcoming from St. Martin’s). She was born in Kobe, Japan and has lived in Bangladesh, Burma, Laos, New York and China; she currently resides in Paris and Brussels.
|