Seven Pieces of Ginger

Original title: Sept gingembres

Publication Date:

August 2020

Pages:

224

Original language and publisher

French | Actes Sud

Territories Handled

Netherlands, North America, Scandinavia

Genre

Debut Novel

Seven Pieces of Ginger

Original title: Sept gingembres

Synopsis

His name is Antoine S. and he is 43 years old. He is a director at an advertising agency and when he receives a visit from a labor inspector concerning the attempted suicide of a female employee, he reckons that the inspection poses no threat and that everything will sort itself out. So he does what he normally does: compartmentalizes. Putting up barriers is what he does very well, just like ginger in Japanese cuisine prevents the tastes from mixing. He may admittedly have a dark space, a blind spot, a vaguely menacing fuzzy zone in his head, but he believes that he can prevent anything that needs hiding from filtering out.

In this debut novel about the end of an era in a Paris of Ubers and brunches, bistronomy and the super-rich, Christophe Perruchas follows as if with a hidden camera a sexual harasser caught out in the post-#metoo age. A succession of snapshots reveals the life history of a man who comes crashing up against the end of the world he knew.

Marketing Information

  • Prix de Flore Shortlist