RAOUL CERUSIER, an entirely ordinary man, seems to have changed his identity somewhere between home and the government office he is visiting to obtain a document. Between blackmailing the secretary of his former self and seducing his own wife, Raoul is confronted with the dark realisation of his true nature.

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MARCEL AYMÉ was born in Joigny, France in 1902. Following his studies at the Collège de Dole he moved to Paris and worked, most notably, as a journalist. Aymé was able to dedicate himself entirely to literature following the success of The Green Mare, a dark satire on sexuality published in 1933. Following the German occupation and the French resistance, Aymé’s ironic, and often disillusioned perception of the state of affairs in France during this period, produced a body of work that is still placed at the forefront of twentieth century French literature. Marcel Aymé died in Paris in 1967.

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TRANSLATED BY Sophie Lewis
Cover Illustration by Valentine Hugo circa 1940
ISBN 2 401 901 285 39 1