FABLE - Softcover

Fiction. Translated from the French by Barbara Wright. "What can I tell you about FABLE? It is a love story, or rather the story of a betrayal. The man betrayed doesn't cry out for vengeance, he is prostrated. Then he tries to turn the tragedy to ridicule, in order to overcome it. Monsieur Miaille becomes Monsieur Miette ('crumb'), thus he survives, although greatly diminished. Return to the fold (Fantoine) after a short odyssey, and acceptance."—Robert Pinget, in a letter to his translator, Barbara Wright

Robert Pinget was born in Geneva on July 19, 1919. After the Second World War, he moved to Paris and studied painting under Jean Souverbie. Although he had some modest success with painting, he soon turned his attention to writing. In the mid- fifties, Pinget befriended Samuel Beckett who introduced him to the editors at Editions Minuit; they were to publish his novel Graal Filibuste (1956) and subsequently the rest of his work. In addition to novels, many of which are available in English from Red Dust, all superbly translated by Barbara Wright, Pinget also wrote plays for the stage and the radio. Pinget has long been associated with the Nouveau Roman mainly because the authors under that banner shared a similar apolitical worldview; many shared the same publisher (Editions Minuit), and all held the plot driven structure of the traditional novel in contempt. Reductive associations aside, Pinget was a truly singular voice; his writing celebrates and explores language backed with an exquisite use of dialog and a warm and deeply reflective sense of parody. He died in Tours on August 25, 1997 at age 78.