Domain: Wikimedia Commons.)
Avertissement
L’auteur et l’éditeur renvoient
les maniaques de la grammaire et
de la syntaxe, les intoxiqués de la
concordance des temps, les mordus
de l’imparfait du subjonctif, les
fabricants de néologisme à usage
interne, les coupeurs en quatre de
point-virgule et autres fanatiques
des Littré, Robert ou Grévisse à
leurs lectures favorites.
(Notice: The author and editor refer all grammar and syntax maniacs, readers drunk on tense agreement, imperfect subjunctive addicts, fabricators of internal-use-only neologisms, semicolon quadrisectors, and other such fanatics of Littré, Robert, or Grévisse back to their preferred reading materials.)
Thus sounds the delightful warning that precedes La Cité des Rats, a novel that takes the form of a series of letters that Gouri the rat sends his owner. Accidentally locked out of his master’s apartment, he has to hustle to survive in the gutters of Paris, a world full of colorful characters, murder, sex, unionized hamsters through which writer Copi (Raul Damonte Botana, 1939-1987) channels his fascination with lowlives, queer people, immigrants and other outcasts. It was published in 1979 in France, and this spring New Directions will publish a new translation by Kit Schluter.
- Excerpt from CITY OF RATS by Copi, translated by Kit Schluter. Copyright © 1979 by The Literary Estate of Copi. Translation copyright © 2025 by Kit Schluter. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.