TEHRAN – A new translation of “The Anomaly”, a novel by French writer Hervé Le Tellier, has been published by Ofoq in Tehran.

Narges Karimi is the translator of the book, which was originally published in 2020.

An Oulipian work, it is structured around three parts, “As Black as the Sky”, “Life Is a Dream, They Say” and “Song of Oblivion”, whose names are taken from the poetry of Raymond Queneau. The novel asks several questions about the reality of the world and fiction.

Set in June 2021, the story follows a senseless event, which upends the lives of hundreds of men and women, all passengers on a flight from Paris to New York.

Among them: Blake, a respectable family man, though he works as a contract killer; Slimboy, a Nigerian pop star tired of living a lie; Joanna, a formidable lawyer whose flaws have caught up with her; and Victor Miesel, a critically acclaimed yet commercially unsuccessful writer who suddenly becomes a cult hit. 

All of them believed they had double lives. None imagined just how true that was.

This witty variation on the doppelgänger theme, which takes us on a journey from Lagos and Mumbai to the White House, is Hervé Le Tellier’s most ambitious work yet.

Another Persian rendition of “The Anomaly” by Fatemeh Ebrahimian and Mohammad-Amin Beik was brought to Iranian bookstores by Now Publications.

Photo: A combination photo shows French writer Hervé Le Tellier and the front cover of the new Persian edition of his novel “The Anomaly”.

MMS/YAW