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The Son of Man
Published 4 June 2024
ISBN 9781922790989
Format Trade Paperback
Extent 224pp
AU Price $34.99
NZ Price $40.00

The Son of Man

The Dua Lipa Book Club Pick

Formats & editions
Tr. Paperback
4 June 2024
EBook
4 June 2024
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‘Chilling and beautifully written…It pulled me in from the first page and refused to let go.’ Dua Lipa

From the author of the ‘extraordinary’ Animalia (Sunday Times), winner of the Republic of Consciousness Prize, a blazing new novel exploring nature, family, and violence, set on a hostile and glorious mountainside haunted by the past.

In the soft morning light, a man, a woman, and a child drive to Les Roches, a dilapidated house, where the man grew up with his own ruthless father. After several years of absence, the man has reappeared in the life of his wife and their young son, intent on being a family again. While the mother watches the passing days with apprehension, the son discovers the enchantment of nature.

As the father’s hold over them intensifies, the return to their previous life and home seems increasingly impossible. Haunted by his past and consumed with jealousy, the father slips into a kind of madness that only the son will be able to challenge.

Written in flawless, cinematic prose, and brilliantly translated by Frank Wynne, The Son of Man is an exceptional novel of nature and wildness, and a blistering examination of how families fold together and break apart under duress.
Published 4 June 2024
ISBN 9781922790989
Format Trade Paperback
Extent 224pp
AU Price $34.99
NZ Price $40.00

About the author

Jean-Baptiste Del Amo

Jean-Baptiste Del Amo was born in 1981 and is one of France's most exciting writers. Animalia, his fourth novel, published by Text in 2019, won the Prix du Livre Inter 2017 and the 2020 Republic of Consciousness Prize, and was shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt, Prix Femina, Prix Medicis and Prix Wepler. The Son of Man, first published by Gallimard in 2021, is his second novel to appear in English.
portrait photo of Jean-Baptiste Del Amo

Also by Jean-Baptiste Del Amo

Animalia
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Praise for The Son of Man

Del Amo gives a soul to this drama. We oscillate constantly between nature writing, a fable and a psychological novel.

Livres Hebdo

The simple plot becomes as complex as the psychology of these human beasts…Rarely has this young author hit the right notes so perfectly.

Le Monde

The Son of Man is an explosion, a shout. Jean-Baptiste Del Amo is a storming talent; here are words which are forged rather than written, smeared with blood.

Daisy Johnson, author of Sisters

The Son of Man is an astonishing book. Beautifully written, devastating at times, and relentless, but unforgettable.

Michael Magee, author of Close to Home

I was mesmerized by this formidable tale of a son and a mother who come up against both the law of the father and the lawlessness of nature.

Daisy Lafarge, author of Lovebug

An exquisite and mesmerizing novel, in which violence constantly threatens to break the surface. The precision and detail of the prose imprints on the mind like a photograph

Isabella Hammad, author of Enter Ghost

The Son of Man is a complete vision: a parable as palpable as the flesh Del Amo renders in painstaking detail. Dread and horror and beauty all at once—this book defies categorization. I loved every carefully crafted sentence, even as I feared what the next page would bring.

Garrard Conley, author of All the World Beside

A novel of mounting tension, of violence handed down through generations of men like a terrible heirloom. Jean-Baptiste Del Amo is a master of horrific landscapes, landscapes which are rendered horrific by and through the humans who live in them. I would follow him into any deep, dark forest.

Madeleine Watts, author of The Inland Sea