A Void.

London, UK Harvill Press, 1995. Paperback First Edition UK; First Printing, so stated. First Edition UK; First Printing, so stated. Very Near Fine in Wraps: shows a faint eighth-inch, stray mark at the fore-edge; binding square and secure; text clean. Virtually 'As New'. NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. 8vo. 284pp. Translated by Gilbert Adair. Black and Rust-Red design to the panels on a white background field. Crossed out "E" design at the front panel. Trade Paperback. As his country is torn apart by social and political anarchy, Anton Vowl, a chronic insomniac, disappears. Ransacking his Paris flat, a group of his faithful companions trawl through his diary for any indication, for any faint hint, as to his location. Perec lost his mother in the Holocaust. A Void is precisely about the difficulty of speaking in the absence of the most necessary thing. Not merely an intellectual tour de force -- although certainly that -- but one of the most subtle things ever written on grief. The book has a killer, loopy, murder mystery plot, and at the same time manages to be a deeply felt meditation on absence and the way absences constitute our lives. Lots in common with Derrida, etc. The translation is a work of genius/insanity. I can't imagine a better job being done.