The Museum of Contradictions

Winner of the Prix Goncourt de la nouvelle, The Museum of Contradictions is the first book by Belgian literary sensation Antoine Wauters to be translated into English. Stephanie Smee is an award-winning translator from the French.

"A novel-manifesto, enraged and sublime"

-Olivia de Lamberterie, Elle

"We have known from the start that Wauters' writing would be the voice of humanity."

-Michel Zumkir, Le Carnet et les Instants

Armed with the inflection of a poet, Wauters unfurls the moments that everyday people who have been silenced by injustice find their voice and speak out. Their words become weapons against the excesses of an era that has evolved to threaten our humanity.

Teenagers leave their city estates for the freedom of the coast where they are arrested at the beach for disorder; care home residents escape under a starlit sky and return to the embrace of their memories, clear as the night air; young mothers rage at an arrogant world that has left a climate under threat and the future of their children at risk; a young farm boy addresses the neighbour whose privilege and interference has resulted in a ferocious beating that has left his brother deaf and disfigured .

Human contradictions link each of these stories set in a polarised world that demands we choose sides. Acting alone or in groups, Wauters' protestors struggle to find sense where none exists, and together with their antagonists they breathe, hesitate, suffer, and doubt. Strangled by fury and the hopelessness of their predicament, they resolve against logic and expectation to step forward and fight for change.

With the award-winning stories in The Museum of Contradictions, Wauters has captured our zeitgeist. In their defining moment he gives voice to the many.

Contributor: Stephanie Smee (Translated by)

Translator: Stephanie Smee

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