Mend the Living (28 page)

JESSICA MOORE
is an author and translator. Her collection of poems,
Everything, now
(Brick Books, 2012), has been called “a powerful journey through love and loss – serving, ultimately, to unsettle any notion of a boundary between them.” The book is partly a conversation with her translation of
Turkana Boy
(Talonbooks, 2012), a poetic novel by Jean-François Beauchemin, for which she won a PEN America Translation Award. Jessica is also a songwriter –
Beautiful in Red
is her first solo album. Her translation of Maylis de Kerangal’s
Birth of a Bridge
(Talonbooks) was published in 2014.

Photo: Micah Donovan

MAYLIS DE KERANGAL
is the author of several novels in French:
Je marche sous un ciel de traîne
(2000),
La vie voyageuse
(2003),
Corniche Kennedy
(2008), and
Naissance d’un pont
(winner of the Prix Franz Hessel and Prix Médicis in 2010, then translated as
Birth of a Bridge
and published by Talonbooks in 2014). She has also published a collection of short stories,
Ni fleurs ni couronnes
(2006), and a novella,
Tangente vers l’est
(winner of the 2012 prix Landerneau). In addition, she has published a fiction tribute to Kate Bush and Blondie titled
Dans les rapides
(2007). In 2014, her fifth novel,
Réparer les vivants
, was published to wide acclaim, winning the Grand Prix RTL–Lire magazine and the Student Choice Novel of the Year from France Culture and Télérama. She lives in Paris, France.

Photo: Catherine Hélie

ALSO BY MAYLIS DE KERANGAL

NOVELS

Je marche sous un ciel de traîne

La vie voyageuse

Ni fleurs ni couronnes

Dans les rapides

Corniche Kennedy

Tangente vers l’est

Birth of a Bridge
*

Réparer les vivants

FOR CHILDREN

Nina et les oreillers

* Published by Talonbooks

PRAISE FOR THE FRENCH NOVEL

“
Mend the Living
 is Maylis de Kerangal’s most beautiful work to date … Far from being simply the story of a heart transplant, this novel is a modern epic that examines our relationship to death, in as much detail as our relationship to language … A book of such beauty it will take your breath away.” –
Lire

“Maylis de Kerangal navigates fluidly between the epic and the intimate. Her prose … will shake you to your very core.” –
Elle

“One of the most fascinating writers of her generation … Part of what makes this book so moving is that the author (who attended a heart transplant for research) brings us into the interiority of her characters by rendering each person’s relationship to time during the twenty-four hours of the story. With
Mend the Living
, Maylis de Kerangal moves from technical considerations to metaphysics, from exteriority to interiority. She attains even greater heights.” –
Le monde des livres

“Maylis de Kerangal holds back (as a good novelist should) from giving answers to these enormous questions around organ donation; but she brings them up with a breathtaking acuity. One thing becomes clear in our reading: human beings are not pure spirit – the body also has soul.” –
Le Figaro

“A book that moves full circle, from body to body, from brain to brain, life-giving.” –
Télérama

“Neither saints nor apostles, these are ordinary people overwhelmed by the contradictions of the moment and the odds of survival.” –
Le Magazine Littéraire

“A true novel, a great novel, an extraordinary novel.” –
Sunday Journal

LITERARY PRIZES

RTL–
Lire
Magazine Grand Prize 2014

Relay Best Book for Travellers 2014

Pierre-Espil Prize 2014

Paris Diderot–Free Spirits Award 2014

Orange Book Prize 2014

Charles-Brisset Literary Prize 2014

Lire
Magazine Best Novel Award 2014

L’Express–BFMTV Lecture Prize 2014

Agrippa-d’Aubigné Prize 2014

France Culture–Télérama Student Novel 2014

ABOUT TALONBOOKS

Thank you for purchasing and reading
Mend the Living
.

If you came across this ebook by some other means, feel free to purchase it and support our hard work. It is available through most major online ebook retailers and on our website. The
print edition
is also available.

Talonbooks is a small, independent, Canadian book publishing company. We have been publishing works of the highest literary merit since the 1960s. With more than 500 books in print, we offer drama, poetry, fiction, and non-fiction by local playwrights, poets, and authors from the mainstream and margins of Canada’s three founding nations, as well as both visible and invisible minorities within Canada’s cultural mosaic.

Learn more
about us
, the
author
, or
translator
.

© 2014 Éditions Gallimard

Translation © 2016 Jessica Moore

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from Access Copyright (The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency). For a copyright licence, visit accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.

Talonbooks

278 East First Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V5T 1A6

www.talonbooks.com

First printing and electronic edition: 2016

Interior and cover design by Chloë Filson

Talonbooks acknowledges the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund, and the Province of British Columbia through the British Columbia Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

This work was originally published in French as
Réparer les vivants
by Éditions Gallimard, Paris, France, in 2014. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada, through the National Translation Program, for our translation activities.

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