"Olivier Rolin is a towering figure in French literature . . . Rolin is a consummate artist who will speak profoundly to the American heart." Robert Olen Butler, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

Olivier Rolin is one of France's most distinguished novelists. His "Port-Sudan" won the Prix Femina, and "Tigre en Papier" was short-listed for the 2003 Goncourt Prize. This is the first translation of his work into English. William Cloonan is the Richard Chapple Professor of Modern Languages at Florida State University. He is the author of "The Writing of War: French and German Fiction and World War II,"