The Child Who

A village boy wanders through a forest with a phantomatic dog. His mother is gone; his father speechless with anger; his grandmother concealing her own story. ‘A work of startling beauty.’ —Xavier Houssin, ELLE ‘Jeanne Benameur’s work is carved out of silences. Her characters use few words, while she chooses her own with a parsimony that increases their impact tenfold. Suffused in mystery, this novel—about what makes a family, how a personality emerges, how one learns to inhabit the world—is fashioned from a poetry as startling as its title.’ — Raphaëlle Leyris, Le Monde ‘It’s a brief story, but a prodigiously compact one—the hallmark of all Jeanne Benameur’s books. It’s impossible to say enough good things about her, for the loveliest assessments will never adequately convey her talent.’ — Mohammed Aïssaoui, Le Figaro ‘For those with the sensibility to respond to its poetic voice, Jeanne Benameur’s L’enfant qui and the excellent English translation by Bill Johnston have the power to change lives. Existential beyond any philosophical system, the book carefully, lyrically explores the phenomenon of being as it occurs in each of three unnamed family members in an unnamed French village at an unnamed time—a young boy who has lost his mother and who refrains from speaking except to chant lyrically in the solitude of the forest; his artisan, alcoholic father, crippled by fear of life; and the boy’s sturdy grandmother, who shuts out by singing whatever she can’t resolve, including her disappointing God.’ — Lynn Hoggard ‘A marvel.’ —Claire Conruyt, Le Figaro Littéraire