Is now the right time to publish a novel by Louis-Ferdinand Céline?
A newly translated book by an antisemitic French novelist is sure to spark debate
Ferdinand wakes up on a battlefield, his ear glued to the ground with blood. The mud around him is littered with shells. He is unable to move his arm, and there is a terrible ringing in his ears “like a train”. The noise will never leave him, for it is Belgium in 1915, and Ferdinand has “caught the war in my head”. Nearby a man has exploded “like a grenade”; two rats live in what is left of his abdomen.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Monster, Inc?”
From the June 15th 2024 edition
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