Amalia Nothomb

According to ancient Japanese protocol, foreigners deigning to approach the emperor did so only with fear and trembling. Terror and self-abasement conveyed respect. Amélie, our well-intentioned and eager young Western heroine, goes to Japan to spend a year working at the Yumimoto Corporation. Returning to the land …

Food is in short supply and the cold is unbearable. In a tantalizing ménage à trois between a professor, his assistant, and a student, only the books bear witness to their plight.Amélie Nothomb is the award-winning author of 13 novels, including Hygiène de l’assassin; Stupeur et tremblements, winner of the Grand Prix …

Published in English for the first time, Nothomb's award-winning novel tells the story of a reclusive and dying Nobel laureate author who grants access to five journalists. But what they find is far from the literary luminary they imagined.