• 2 Seas Represents: World Translation Rights.

LITERARY FICTION

Jean Vautrin makes words dance. He is a ballet master by profession
— Jean Teulé

The great return of Jean Vautrin, winner of the 1989 Goncourt Prize: with his inimitable wit, he slips into the skin of a young gypsy boy.

Raised by his violinist grandfather who survived the concentration camps and his stepmother who is concerned about his good education, Cornelius Runkele does everything to integrate. He works hard at school, obtains his high school diploma and discovers a passion for books and writing.

But a well-read gypsy remains a gypsy: it’s impossible for him to be perceived as an ordinary citizen, to get away from the kumpania, his clan. Cornelius is hot-blooded. He spends time in a correctional center and, led by his elders, finds himself involved in a burglary. He goes to jail, tries one last time to return to the right path, but his fate catches up with him.

The story of Cornelius is told in seven moleskine notebooks, a fictional diary. A diary of someone who is put off by life, Gypsy Blues vibrates with anger and humanity and is a great author’s tribute to gypsy culture.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jean Vautrin defines himself as a “popular writer.” He is the author of an abundant and critically acclaimed oeuvre, which has been translated into many languages. His titles include the 1989 ​​Goncourt Prize winning Un grand pas vers le bon Dieu, Billy-ze-Kick, La vie Ripolin, the series Les Aventures de Boro with Dan Franck, and Le Cri du Peuple, which Tardi adapted to a comic strip book. Vautrin has received La Feuille d’Or (the Gold Leaf) of the City of Nancy for his entire oeuvre.