SEVERE

By Régis Jauffret
Translated by Joel Anderson

Published: 27 March 2013
ISBN : 978 0 9568082 40

176 pages



>>> READING SAMPLE

I met him one spring evening. I became his mistress. I bought the latex suit he was wearing on the day he died. I acted as his sexual secretary. He introduced me to firearms. He gave me a revolver. I extorted a million dollars out of him. He took it back. I slaughtered him with a bullet between the eyes. He fell from the chair where I’d tied him up. He was still breathing. I finished him off. I went to take a shower. I picked up the shells. I put them in my bag with the revolver. I slammed the door of the apartment behind me.

 

A love story. Despite the humiliation, the whips, the latex and the bullets. Inspired by a tragic event, the murder of a banker, Régis Jauffret imagines how the story unfolded.

  

Born in 1955 in Marseille, Régis Jauffret has written 17 books and won many prizes in France. Salammbo Press has published LACRIMOSA by Régis Jauffret, and will also be publishing CLAUSTRIA.

Press

 

‘The quality of Jauffret's language, which fluctuates between the precise and the poetic, ensures his writing never lapses into sensationalism. Severe is a dark, often brutal, but resoundingly subtle consideration of the dynamics between love, exploitation, sex and power.’ Russell Williams, The Independent on Sunday

 

‘But what I found most impressive and also most alienating in the novel is its refusal to give us the conventional comfort of explanation. At the furthest outskirts of human behaviour, Jauffret is content to let the irrational, the incoherent and the inexplicable stand, just as they are. And that, I think, will offend readers a great deal more than any sadomasochistic practices. But it’s also the most ethical part of the story.’ litlove.wordpress.com

The book is written in the first person and is a very stylish read. It grabs your attention from the first paragraph, which describes the murder in a few sparse sentences.’ acommonreader.org

‘A reflection on sex, power, money and emotions, Severe also emerges as a deeply touching picture of a woman seeking absolution.’ Express

‘A universal, fascinating epic story of an unusual love affair. Again, Jauffret explores the boundaries of fiction and reality.’ Les Inrockuptibles

 
‘A radioactive diamond.’ Figaro

‘Here everybody is guilty and a victim, manipulator and manipulated at the same time.’ Libération

‘Timeless and infernal.’ Télérama

 

 

  

The film Une histoire d’Amour, based on Severe, has been adapted for the screen and directed by Hélène Fillières, starring Laetitia Casta and Benoît Poelvoorde.  

Coming to cinemas in the UK and Ireland in 2013.

THE UNIVERSE EXPLAINED TO MY GRANDCHILDREN

By Hubert Reeves
Translated by Donald Winkler

Published: 16 July 2012
ISBN : 97809568082-2-6 eBook 97809568082-9-5

140 pages

“Grandpa, how big is the universe? How far are the stars? How can we tell the sun’s age? Are we stardust? What is thunder? Is the universe expanding? Do black holes exist? What is the future of the universe?”

“The book was born from conversations I had with one of my granddaughters, on certain summer evenings. All during its writing, I was able to relive those August evenings when the children showered me with questions while we awaited the shooting stars. The contemplation of the heavenly vault and the sense of our presence among the stars inspired a shared wish to know more about this mysterious cosmos in which we live. Here we will be talking about science, but that in no way rules out poetry.”
Hubert Reeves

In this book, master astrophysicist Hubert Reeves unlocks the secrets of the universe. This is his spiritual testament to younger generations and a perfect occasion for us all to revise our conceptions about the cosmos.


Leading international expert in Astronomy and Cosmology, Hubert Reeves is the author of more than 20 influential science books, many of them best sellers.

Press

‘Reeves’ fascination with the history and ultimate fate of the universe, and with the role we play as a conscious part of it, is beautiful and infectious. The reader gets a taste for the history and philosophy, as well as the facts, of science, and the conversational tone makes these very complex ideas accessible to teenagers and adults alike.’ I, Science

THERESE AND ISABELLE

By Violette Leduc
Translated by Sophie Lewis
Postface by Carlo Jansiti

Published: 1 March 2012
ISBN : 9780956808219 eBook 9780956808264

140 pages

Charged with metaphors, alternating with precise descriptions of sensations and human relationships, Thérèse and Isabelle was censored by its publisher in France in 1954, first published in a truncated version in 1966 and not until 2000 in its uncensored edition, as Violette Leduc intended.

“I'm trying to express as exactly, as minutely as possible the sensations of physical love. There's something here that a woman can understand. I hope this won't appear more scandalous than the thoughts of Molly Bloom at the end of Joyce's Ulysses. Every sincere psychological analysis deserves to be heard, I think.”  Violette Leduc  

For the first time in a new English translation, here is the unabridged text of Thérèse and Isabelle.


Admired by Jean Genet, Nathalie Sarraute and Albert Camus, Violette Leduc (1907-1972) was championed by Simone de Beauvoir when she published her scandalous autobiography La Batarde (1964). Like Thérèse and Isabelle, many of her audacious novels are largely inspired by her life. Her vibrant and lyrical prose continues to fascinate new generations of writers around the world.

Press

‘Thérèse and Isabelle is written with unflinching sincerity and Leduc's progressive attitude and experimental style confirm it as one of the greatest examples of French-language erotic literature.’  Olivia Heal, TLS

‘But if the uncensored Thérèse and Isabelle reads like a fever-dream, to many it represents a long-awaited panacea.’ Thea Lenarduzzi, Literary Review

‘So here we have extraordinary writing about sex; and, more importantly, about love, and the way it makes us feel.’  Nicholas Lezard, Guardian

‘Thunderbolts of illicit love. A classy new translation of Leduc's masterpiece on the tyranny of love.’  Independent

‘Reading Leduc is like discovering a whole new nervous system.’  Deborah Levy

‘Lesbian story ban is lifted.’ Observer 

‘Violette's prose, hirsute and grating as always, throws itself into faces more spiritedly than today's provocateurs, and above all more authentically. The reticence and languor of Thérèse and Isabelle renews an erotic tradition that today has become banal.’ Libération

LACRIMOSA

By Régis Jauffret
Translated by Vineet Lal

Published: 25 November 2011
ISBN : 9780956808202 eBook 97809568082-5-7

222p pages



>>> READING SAMPLE

Dear Charlotte,

You died on a sudden whim from a long illness. Suicide gushed through your brain like an oil spill and you hanged yourself. You had been living in Paris for fourteen years but on 7 June 2007 you took the train to Marseille. As if humans had the memory of an elephant and sometimes returned to dig their grave near the place where, in the past, they'd forced their way out of their mother's womb to set foot in life.


Lacrimosa unfolds through a moving exchange of letters between the narrator and his young lover, Charlotte, who has just committed suicide. Their poignant dialogue makes this epistolary novel a truly cathartic experience.

Born in Marseille in 1955, Régis Jauffret is a mind-blowing author whose books are often described as acerbic and written with a scalpel, stripping life to the bone. He has won many prizes in France and his recent novel Severe will be published by Salammbo Press in 2013.

Press

‘Lacrimosa is marked by Jauffret's own direct involvement in both the real-life events and the narrative, an internal exploration deepened by his own experience.’ Russell Williams, TLS

‘If you follow my advice, I promise: while reading Lacrimosa, you will both endure enjoyment and suffering. Lacrimosa is just made of what life is made of.’ Olivier Barrot, Vice Versa, France 24 

‘Régis Jauffret has perhaps written his most accomplished novel, a work of devastating and devastated beauty: an ode to a dead lover.’ Magazine Littéraire

‘Tragic and caustic.’ Télérama

‘Lacrimosa works like a literary boxing match, a heartbreaking masterpiece where emotion is never far from the absurd.’ Express

‘A savage epistolary dialogue made for a great novel.’
Nouvel Observateur

‘A merciless tale in which honesty explodes from every page, sometimes to the point of provocation.’
Figaro