Of Fangs and Talons

THE FIRST NOVEL BY NICOLAS MATHIEU, WINNER OF THE 2018 PRIX GONCOURT

Nicolas Mathieu's gripping first novel is the story of a world that has come to an end. With a girl, a gun and acres of snow.

When a factory that employs most of a small town is scheduled to close - to the despair of the workers and disdain of the overlords - things start to fall apart. The disenfranchised factory workers have nothing left to lose. Martel, the trade union rep with innumerable tattoos and Bruce, the body-builder addicted to steroids resort to desperate measures. A bungled kidnapping on the streets of Strasbourg goes horribly wrong and they find themselves falling prey to the machinations of the criminal underworld.

"[An] uncompromising portrait of a working class eaten up by the frustration and resentment of having been abandoned, and sinking into alcoholism and racism". -- Paris Match

“Before Nicolas Mathieu won the Prix Goncourt in 2018 for And Their Children After Them he wrote this remarkable novel about two small-town scallies who resort to crime when the local factory closes down . . . Mathieu, a wonderful writer, echoes the grittiness and compassion of Emile Zola in Germinal - The TimesThere are several intersecting stories in this bleakly uncompromising portrait of working-class life in the Vosges . . . this tale of helpless, resentful people with nothing to lose is powerful and compelling . - Guardian PRAISE FOR AND THEIR CHILDREN AFTER THEM : 'Deeply felt . . . An exceptional portrait of youth - Irish Times[A] page-turner of a novel . . . I couldn't put the book down - New York TimesMathieu won France's prestigious Goncourt prize for this absorbing Nineties narrative set in a French valley community left stranded by the decline of industry . . . a multi-viewpoint panorama of thwarted aspirations, spiced with breathy sex scenes and nostalgic detail - Mail on Sunday And Their Children After Them finds space for beauty, for tenderness, for hope . . . you might think of a Ken Loach movie with a soundtrack by Bruce Springsteen . . . an elegiac anthem - Financial TimesThe plot, involving drug dealing and simmering violence . . . keeps you turning the pages. - Sunday TimesAward-winning novelist Nicolas Mathieu portrays how the destruction of working-class communities has fed cynicism and despair. - Jacobin Magazine”

Before Nicolas Mathieu won the Prix Goncourt in 2018 for And Their Children After Them he wrote this remarkable novel about two small-town scallies who resort to crime when the local factory closes down . . . Mathieu, a wonderful writer, echoes the grittiness and compassion of Émile Zola in Germinal Sunday Times
There are several intersecting stories in this bleakly uncompromising portrait of working-class life in the Vosges . . . this tale of helpless, resentful people with nothing to lose is powerful and compelling. -- Laura Wilson Guardian
Award-winning novelist Nicolas Mathieu portrays how the destruction of working-class communities has fed cynicism and despair. -- Conrad Landin Jacobin Magazine
A first novel of rare power Le Figaro Littéraire
Nicolas Mathieu has written one of the best crime novels of the year Le Monde

Nicolas Mathieu was born in 1978 in Epinal, a small town in north-eastern France. After studying history and cinema, he moved to Paris, where he worked variously as a scriptwriter, a news editor, a private tutor, and a temp at City Hall. His first novel, Of Fangs and Talons, won the Erckmann-Chatrian prize, the Transfuge prize and the critics' award at the Prix Mystere. His second novel, And Their Children After Them, was published to universal acclaim in 2018 and won various prizes including the most coveted prize in France, the Prix Goncourt. He lives in Nancy.

THE FIRST NOVEL BY NICOLAS MATHIEU, WINNER OF THE 2018 PRIX GONCOURT Nicolas Mathieu's gripping first novel is the story of a world that has come to an end. With a girl, a gun and acres of snow. When a factory that employs most of a small town is scheduled to close - to the despair of the workers and disdain of the overlords - things start to fall apart. The disenfranchised factory workers have nothing left to lose. Martel, the trade union rep with innumerable tattoos and Bruce, the body-builder addicted to steroids resort to desperate measures. A bungled kidnapping on the streets of Strasbourg goes horribly wrong and they find themselves falling prey to the machinations of the criminal underworld. "[An] uncompromising portrait of a working class eaten up by the frustration and resentment of having been abandoned, and sinking into alcoholism and racism". -- Paris Match

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