François Dominique - Aseroë

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“[An] enigmatic and radiant book.”

—Maurice Blanchot

“This over-the-top, extraordinary novel, in its no less stupendous translation, begins with a mycological intimacy that brings to mind the great mushroom scenes of the film Phantom Thread . How not to be aroused by this whopping treat of verbal virtuosity?”

—Mary Ann Caws, author of The Modern Art Cookbook and Creative Gatherings: Meeting Places of Modernism

“A singular novel. Aseroë’s storyteller speaks from within the grasp of mysterious and urgent preoccupations. Yet his confident narration, rich in colorful, familiar detail, and sensitively and gracefully rendered into English by master translator Richard Sieburth, assures us of his obsessions’ importance to him and, within his brilliant and bizarrely convincing world, increasingly to us.”

—Lydia Davis, author of Can’t and Won’t and Essays One

“An immensely pleasurable read.”

—Pascal Quignard, Prix Goncourt award–winning author of The Roving Shadows

“What a wonderful piece of writing! What an exhilarating adventure! What a madcap exploration of mushrooms, paintings, Rimbaud, the legend of Orpheus, and the mazes of a poet’s mind, in a jigsaw puzzle of a book that ultimately (like Alice’s Wonderland) makes absolute sense!”

—Alberto Manguel, author of The Library at Night and Fabulous Monsters: Dracula, Alice, Superman, and Other Literary Friends

“In this book oblivion is daylight.”

—Éric Vuillard, Prix Goncourt award-winning author of The Order of the Day

“Full of wonder…. Aseroë is a lyrical contemplation of how words affect reality.”

—Eileen Gonzalez, Foreword Reviews

“A book filled to the gills with a veritable feast of literary ingredients. To read Aseroë is to experience a kind of inebriation as we drink in the intelligence and the talent of its author.”

—Marie Étienne, La Quinzaine Littéraire

“Ranging from the mysterious mushroom known by the name of Aseroë to Giorgione’s painting The Tempest , while meditating on the millions made off the work of Rimbaud, [ Aseroë ] offers a series of astonishing and detailed variations on the theme of the figures of forgetfulness.”

—Claire Devarieux, Libération

First published in the United States in 2020

by Bellevue Literary Press, New York

For information, contact:

Bellevue Literary Press

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New York, NY 10004

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Aseroë was originally published in French in 1992 as Aséroé by POL éditeur

Text © 1992 by François Dominique

© POL éditeur

Translation © 2020 by Richard Sieburth and Howard Limoli

This is a work of fiction. Characters, organizations, events, and places (even those that are actual) are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Dominique, François, 1943- author. | Sieburth, Richard, translator. | Limoli, Howard, translator.

Title: Aseroë / François Dominique ; translated by Richard Sieburth and Howard Limoli.

Other titles: Aséroé. English

Description: First edition. | New York : Bellevue Literary Press, 2020. | Aseroë was originally published in French in 1992 as Aséroé by POL éditeur

Identifiers: LCCN 2020002388 (print) | LCCN 2020002389 (ebook) | ISBN 9781942658788 (paperback) | ISBN 9781942658795 (ebook)

Classification: LCC PQ3949.2.D57 A913 2021 (print) | LCC PQ3949.2.D57 (ebook) | DDC 843/.914--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020002388

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020002389

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a print, online, or broadcast review.

Bellevue Literary Press would like to thank all its generous donors—individuals and foundations—for their support.

This publication is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Book design and composition by Mulberry Tree Press, Inc.

Bellevue Literary Press is committed to ecological stewardship in our book production practices, working to reduce our impact on the natural environment.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Manufactured in the United States of America

First Edition

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paperback ISBN: 978-1-942658-78-8

ebook ISBN: 978-1-942658-79-5