The Most Beautiful Book in the World

Description

Balthazar is a successful author; Odette is a cashier at a supermarket. Balthazar has a beautiful wife and a delightful home; Odette and the two troubled kids she is raising alone live in subsidised housing. Life has been generous to Balthazar and harsh to Odette. Yet, of the two Balthazar is the unhappy one. In this, and other short stories, Schmitt enchants his readers with a style that is spirited and buoyant as he moves from the story of a barefooted princess to that of a prisoner in a Soviet gulag and a perennially disgruntled perfectionist.

Eric-Emmanuel Schmittais one of Europe's most popularaand acclaimed authors and playwrights. His many novelsaand story collections includeaThe Most Beautiful Bookain the Worlda(Europa, 2009),aOscar and the Lady in Pink,aandaMonsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran.aA keen music lover, Schmitt has also translated intoaFrenchaThe Marriage of FigaroaandaDon Giovanniafromathe original Italian. In 2001, he was awarded the FrenchaAcademy's Grand Prix du ThUOtre. Schmitt divides his time between Paris andaBrussels.

Praise for The Most Beautiful Book in the World "Melancholy but edifying orator, light yet profound raconteur a la Denis Diderot, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt squeezes goodness from sorrow, places language, the word, on an altar, and derives from reality books that sell millions of copies." --Il Giornale (Italy) "The Most Beautiful Book in the World is as affecting as it is intelligent...Eight stories, parables on the idea of a future, filled with redeeming optimism. Truth and beauty are here brought together with all the visual beauty and power of a major literary work." --Lire Magazine (France) "A born story-teller with a talent for telling ostensibly simple tales, each suggestive of a philosophy of life, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt [in The Most Beautiful Book in the World] takes the lid off the lives of eight women in eight contrasting portraits, each time with thought-provoking piquancy and suspense, that lead to an arresting and delightful end." --La Libre Belgique (Belgium) "Melancholy but edifying orator, light yet profound raconteur (like Diderot), Eric- Emmanuel Schmitt squeezes goodness from sorrow, places language, the word, on an altar, and derives from reality books that sell millions of copies." "-Il Giornale (Italy)" ""The Most Beautiful Book in the World" is as affecting as it is intelligent. [...] Eight stories, parables on the idea of a future, filled with redeeming optimism. Truth and beauty are here brought together. The Most Beautiful Book in the World [...] has all the visual beauty and power of major literary works." -"Jean-RTmi Barland, Lire Magazine (France)" "A born story-teller with a talent for telling ostensibly simple tales that nevertheless suggest a philosophy for life, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt [in "The Most Beautiful Book in the World"] takes the lid off the lives of eight women in eight contrasting portraits, each time with thought- provoking piquancy and suspense leading to an arresting and delightful end." -"La Libre Belgique (Belgium)"