{"product_id":"we-monks-soldiers-9780803239913","title":"We Monks \u0026 Soldiers","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom one of the most original French writers of our day comes a mysterious, prismatic, and at times profoundly sad reflection on humanity in its darker moments--one of which may very well be our own. In a collection of fictions that blur distinctions between dreaming and waking reality, Lutz Bassmann sets off a series of echoes--the \"entrevoutes\" that conduct us from one world to another in a journey as viscerally powerful as it is intellectually heady. While humanity seems to be fading around them, the members of a shadowy organization are doing their inadequate best to assist those experiencing their last moments. From a soldier-monk exorcising what seem to be spirits (but are they?) from an abandoned house, to a spy executing a mission whose meaning eludes him, to characters exploring cells, wandering through ruins, confronting political dissent and persecution, encountering--perhaps--the spirits once exorcised, these stories conduct us through a world at once ambiguous and sharply observed. This remarkable work, in Jordan Stump's superb translation, offers readers a thrilling entry into Bassmann's numinous world. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLutz Bassmann belongs to a community of imaginary authors invented, championed, and literarily realized by Antoine Volodine, a French writer of Slavic origins born in 1950. Volodine's many celebrated, category-defying works include the award-winning \u003cem\u003eMinor Angels\u003c\/em\u003e (Nebraska, 2004), which blends science fiction, Tibetan myth, a ludic approach to writing, and a profound humanistic idealism. Jordan Stump is a professor of French at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is the author of \u003cem\u003eThe Other Book\u003c\/em\u003e (Nebraska, 2011), has translated numerous texts, including \u003cem\u003eMinor Angels\u003c\/em\u003e, and was awarded the French-American Foundation's translation prize and the Prix M?dicis in 2014.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLutz Bassmann belongs to a community of imaginary authors invented, championed, and literarily realized by Antoine Volodine, a French writer of Slavic origins born in 1950. Volodine's many celebrated, category-defying works include the award-winning \u003ci\u003eMinor Angels\u003c\/i\u003e (Nebraska, 2004), which blends science fiction, Tibetan myth, a ludic approach to writing, and a profound humanistic idealism. Jordan Stump is a professor of French at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Other Book\u003c\/i\u003e (Nebraska, 2011), has translated numerous texts, including \u003ci\u003eMinor Angels\u003c\/i\u003e, and was awarded the French-American Foundation's translation prize and the Prix Médicis in 2014.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Nebraska Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50461166108946,"sku":"9780803239913","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_69fa60a1-b3c5-4eb2-8073-74161c6f089e.jpg?v=1730058526","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/we-monks-soldiers-9780803239913","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}