PT. 1 Frankfurt.inx

Born in Paris in 1949, Philippe Djian rose to prominence as a nonconformist novelist in the 1980s. Rejecting the gentrification of French
writing, he immerses his readers in the straight-talking, unaffected
world of the everyday: the menial job, the cigarette stub, the melancholy booze-up, the spoiled dinner in the kitchen sink. A cult figure of
the French literary scene, Djian has said that authors should ‘write . . .
as if each sentence could be your last.’ His work received international
acclaim with the release of the film Betty Blue, adapted from his hugely
celebrated novel 37°2 le matin.
Publishers of Oh . . .:
France: Gallimard
Oh . . .
I must have scratched my cheek. It is burning. My jaw is hurting. I knocked over a vase when I fell, I remember hearing it break on the ground, and asking myself if I had not injured myself with a shard of glass. The
sun is still shining outside.It’s a nice day. I am slowly getting my breath back. I feel I’m going to get a terrible
migraine, in just a few minutes.
Michèle is in her early 50s, divorced. She runs a successful scriptwriting business with her best
friend, Anna, and is the mother to an obstinate teenage son, Vincent, whose overweight girlfriend
takes a remarkably loveless approach to their baby. At the beginning of Oh . . . , Michèle is sexually
assaulted, but amid a maelstrom of family crises—her mother’s death, her own waning affair with
Anna’s husband, Richard, and her son’s determination to obtain sole custody of her grandchild—
she does not report the crime. But could the solicitous next-door neighbor so willing to be of
service in Michèle’s hour of need be the perpetrator himself?
‘A phenomenon of French literature, Djian—we no longer need to mention his first name—continues to cause a stir with every new publication . . . He has revolutionized French novel-writing . .
. Djian shines in his artistry and detail, in the power of his images . . . and puts his experience of human relationships to good use in the realistic dialogues—which are also always cinematographic.’ Lire
By Philippe Djian
50 contre 1 (1981)
Bleu comme l’enfer (1983)
Zone érogène (1984)
37°2 le matin / Betty Blue (1985)
Maudit manège (1986)
Échine (1988)
Crocodiles (1989)
Lent dehors (1991)
Lorsque Lou (1992)
Sotos (1993)
Carcassonne (1993)
Assassins (1994)
Bram Van Velde (1995)
Contes de Noël (1996)
Entre nous soit dit: conversations avec
Jean-Louis Ezine (1996)
Criminels (1997)
Sainte Bob (1998)
Vers chez les blancs (2000)
Ardoise (2002)
Ça, c’est un baiser (2002)
Frictions (2003)
Impuretés (2005)
Doggy bag, saison 1 (2005)
Doggy bag, saison 2 (2006)
Doggy bag, saison 3 (2006)
Doggy bag, saison 4 (2007)
Doggy bag, saison 5 (2007)
Doggy bag, saison 6 (2008)
La fin du monde (with Horst Haack)
(2008)
Lui (2008)
Impardonnables / Unforgivable
Consequences(2009)
Incidences (2010)
Vengeances (2011)
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PHOTO CREDIT CATHERINE HÉLIE © EDITIONS GALLIMARD
Philippe Djian