Roland Barthes, perhaps the greatest of the critical theorists whose work came to dominate postwar cultural discourse, died from injuries sustained when he was hit by a laundry van in February 1980. It is as erudite and readable as its predecessor, although this time, instead of having as its raison d’être the scrupulous rendering of historical fact, it uses a single event – the death of the critic Roland Barthes – as the springboard for a wildly inventive and engaging tale of scholars, spies and secret societies. It’s a finalist for the 2018 Man Booker International Prize. “The 7th Function of Language” (La Septième fonction du langage, 2015), superbly translated by Sam Taylor, is alternate historical thriller who received in 2015 Le prix du roman Fnac and Prix Interallié. This is a novel that establishes Laurent Binet as the clear heir to the late Umberto Eco, writing novels that are both brilliant and playful, dense with ideas while never losing sight of their need to entertain.” - The Guardian “ With this freewheeling fantasy about the death of the celebrated French critic, Binet delivers a second novel as erudite and engaging as his first.
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