In Self-Portrait Abroad, our narrator — a Belgian author much like Toussaint himself — travels the globe, finding the mundane blended everywhere with the exotic: With his usual poker face, he keeps up on Corsican gossip in Tokyo and has a battle...
Moving through a variety of locales and adventures, The Truth about Marie revisits the unnamed narrator of Toussaint’s acclaimed Running Away, reporting on his now disintegrated relationship with the titular Marie — the story switching deftly...
"A little thing happened to me. Which could have just as easily happened to you. You re on vacation in a hotel with your son in a small village and you re about to go see some friends, but something holds you back, a mysterious reticence that...