title: The Book of Nights: A Novel (Verba Mundi Series)
author:  Sylvie Germain 
description: Stilted language aspiring to fairy-tale simplicity combines with ridiculous plot developments struggling to be fantastical to sink this French antiwar novel. The Peniels, a Flanders family living on a river barge through the Franco-Prussian War, WW I and WW II, suffer a series of misfortunes. Inasmuch as the narrative can be said to have a central character, it is Victor-Flandrin Peniel (also known as Night-of-gold-Wolf-face, because of a yellow spot in his eye), whose slightly demented father hacks off two of his fingers at age five to ensure he'll never be drafted. During the course of his life, Victor-Flandrin buries four wives and sires 15 children, none of whom seem to particularly interest the author. The breadth of Germain's narrative range can be judged by her use of the phrase "quince and vanilla" five times in 40 pages to describe a smell or taste. This is the first of her five novels to be published in English, and the translation does her no favors; the prose is as awkward and displeasing as the redundant imagery. <BR>Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
zlib_text: VERBA MUND! is a new series that offers the best 
  in modern literature-whether by such estab­
  lished masters as Jose Donoso, Leonardo Sciascia, 
  Fernando Pessoa, and Cesare Pavese, or by some of 
  the world's most notable younger writers, many of 
  them making their first appearance in English. 
  Over time, the titles published in VERBA MUND! 
  will constitute a library of present and future clas­
  sics from a wide variety of countries and languages. 
  By offering these superbly translated, attractively 
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  OTHER VERBA MONDI BOOKS 
  The Tartar Steppe 
  by Dino Buzzati 
  The Book of Nights 
  by Sylvie Germain 
  The Prospector 
  by J. M. G. Le Clezio 
  Honeymoon 
  by Patri