The Son of Man

Resumen del libro

After several years of absence, a man reappears in the life of a woman and their young son. Intent on being a family again, he drives them to Les Roches, a dilapidated house in the mountains, where the man grew up with his own ruthless father. While the mother watches the passing days with apprehension, the son discovers the enchantment of nature, savage and bewitching.

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 man slowly sinks into madness and his son has no choice but to challenge his father in an attempt to save something of their humanity. Written in flawless, cinematic prose and brilliantly translated by Frank Wynne, The Son of Man is an exceptional novel of nature and wildness that traces how violence is inherited from one generation to the next, and a blistering examination of how families fold together and break apart under duress.

Biografía del autor

Jean-Baptiste Del Amo nació en Toulouse en 1981. Irrumpió en el panorama literario con Una educación libertina, por la que recibió el reconocimiento unánime de público y crítica y que se alzó, entre otros, con el premio Goncourt de primera novela. A esta le seguiría La sal, Pornographia y Reino animal, galardonada con el Premio Livre Inter. El hijo del hombre (Seix Barral, 2022) ha obtenido el premio FNAC y le ratifica como uno de los autores más ambiciosos y reconocidos de las letras francesas.