''The Anomaly'' (french: L'anomalie) is a 2020 novel by French writer
Hervé Le Tellier
Hervé Le Tellier (born 21 April 1957) is a French writer and linguist, and a member of the international literary group Oulipo (Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle, which translates roughly as "workshop of potential literature"). He is its fou ...
. It was published by
Éditions Gallimard
Éditions Gallimard (), formerly Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française (1911–1919) and Librairie Gallimard (1919–1961), is one of the leading French book publishers. In 2003 it and its subsidiaries published 1,418 titles.
Founded by Ga ...
on 20 August 2020.
An English translation by
Adriana Hunter was published by
Other Press
Other Press is an independent publisher of literary fiction and nonfiction, based in New York City. Founded in 1998 to publish academic and psychoanalytic titles, Other Press has since expanded to publish novels, short stories, nonfiction, poetr ...
on 23 November 2021 ().
The novel received positive reviews from the literary press. It received the
Prix Goncourt
The Prix Goncourt (french: Le prix Goncourt, , ''The Goncourt Prize'') is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward o ...
on 30 November 2020.
Summary
An
Oulipian work, it is structured around three parts, "As Black as the Sky" (''Aussi noir que le ciel''), "Life Is a Dream, They Say" (''La vie est un songe dit-on''), and "Song of Oblivion" (''La chanson du néant''), whose names are taken from the poetry of
Raymond Queneau
Raymond Queneau (; 21 February 1903 – 25 October 1976) was a French novelist, poet, critic, editor and co-founder and president of Oulipo ('' Ouvroir de littérature potentielle''), notable for his wit and cynical humour.
Biography
Queneau w ...
. The novel asks several questions about the reality of the world and fiction.
On March 10, 2021,
Air France
Air France (; formally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global a ...
Flight 006 from Paris is forced to
fly through a cumulonimbus supercell
A supercell is a thunderstorm characterized by the presence of a mesocyclone: a deep, persistently rotating updraft. Due to this, these storms are sometimes referred to as rotating thunderstorms. Of the four classifications of thunderstorms ( ...
of unprecedented size during a routine landing at
John F. Kennedy International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport (colloquially referred to as JFK Airport, Kennedy Airport, New York-JFK, or simply JFK) is the main international airport serving New York City. The airport is the busiest of the seven airports in the Avia ...
. Over the following few months, the passengers from this flight go about their normal lives. Several encounter milestones, such as marriage, pregnancy, breakup, and death.
Among the passengers, Victor Miesel, a writer and translator, abruptly writes a book manuscript titled ''The anomaly'' from start to finish, then commits suicide. The posthumous publication of the manuscript garners widespread publicity, recognition, and acclaim for its deceased writer.
On June 24, 2021, an exact duplicate of Air France Flight 006 from March 10, populated by exact duplicates of all passengers and crew on board, appears in the sky over Kennedy Airport and attempts landing. This triggers the
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national sec ...
enacting Protocol 42, a highly unconventional air traffic emergency response protocol, devised by two
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
statistics researchers as an in-joke.
The two MIT alumni are unwittingly requisitioned to supervise the detention of the duplicate passenger jet and passengers by multiple U.S. security agencies, and to lead a forum of scientists to explain this impossible incident. The assembled scientists gradually gravitate towards the incident as evidence for the
simulation hypothesis
The simulation hypothesis proposes that all of our existence is a simulated reality, such as a computer simulation.
The simulation hypothesis bears a close resemblance to various other skeptical scenarios from throughout the history of philosophy. ...
, even as they agonize over its
unfalsifiability
Falsifiability is a standard of evaluation of scientific theories and hypotheses that was introduced by the philosopher of science Karl Popper in his book '' The Logic of Scientific Discovery'' (1934). He proposed it as the cornerstone of a so ...
. Unbeknownst to the public, the Chinese government, having secretively captured a duplicate passenger jet of a different flight, has independently postulated the simulation hypothesis as well.
World governments jointly publicize the duplication of over two hundred human beings, committing substantial expense to providing protection and anonymity for the duplicated persons. The duplicates from the June flight are allowed to meet their counterparts from the March flight, arriving at mutual arrangements for co-existence. Some of these pairs find amicable ways to share the same life, while others experience painful upheavals. The living Miesel steps back into his writing career, his newfound fame giving him a second chance to meet a
missed connection.
As media coverage popularizes the simulation hypothesis,
apocalypticism
Apocalypticism is the religious belief that the end of the world is imminent, even within one's own lifetime. This belief is usually accompanied by the idea that civilization will soon come to a tumultuous end due to some sort of catastrophic ...
rises in the general public. In a televised debate, a philosopher suggests that the duplicated flight was a test to the inhabitants of their simulated reality, while Miesel argues that human behavior will not change as a result. Later, in October 2021, another duplicate of Air France Flight 006 appears, and is destroyed by fighter jets under new procedures replacing Protocol 42. The narrative describes a rippling effect felt all across the world as text gradually disappears from the page, line by line.
Style
Organized like a "novel of novels", ''L'Anomalie'' begins with the presentation of several characters, in as many chapters written according to the stylistic codes of different genres, from
thriller
Thriller may refer to:
* Thriller (genre), a broad genre of literature, film and television
** Thriller film, a film genre under the general thriller genre
Comics
* ''Thriller'' (DC Comics), a comic book series published 1983–84 by DC Comics i ...
to the
psychological novel
In literature, psychological fiction (also psychological realism) is a narrative genre that emphasizes interior characterization and motivation to explore the spiritual, emotional, and mental lives of the characters. The mode of narration exami ...
, from
littérature blanche to the introspective narrative. The reader quickly understands that an event, the "anomaly" of a
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
–
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
flight in March 2021, is the link between all these characters.
Annick Geille wrote that Le Tellier seems inspired by the "
postmodern
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or Rhetorical modes, mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by philosophical skepticism, skepticis ...
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
" of the
cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of lowlife and high tech", featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and ...
subgenre.
The work is structured similarly to that of a
television series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...
script.
The novel contains many literary
allusion
Allusion is a figure of speech, in which an object or circumstance from unrelated context is referred to covertly or indirectly. It is left to the audience to make the direct connection. Where the connection is directly and explicitly stated (as ...
s.
Le Tellier described the novel as a
scoubidou.
Characters
In order of appearance in the novel.
* Blake – Hitman, French, leading a double life.
* Victor Miesel – Unsuccessful writer who committed suicide before publishing his latest novel: ''L'Anomalie'', which developed a
cult following
A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...
. The character was inspired by two dead writers, including
Edouard Levé, and two living writers, friends of Le Tellier.
Hervé Le Tellier published a portrait of Miesel, illustrated by Frédéric Rébéna, in ''
Libération
''Libération'' (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Initially positioned on the far-left of France' ...
'' on 1 August 2021.
* Lucie Bogaert – French film editor. Her relationship with André, an architect thirty years her senior, is dysfunctional.
* David Markle – American airline pilot who suffers from pancreatic cancer that was detected too late.
* Sophia Kleffman – Seven-year-old girl; daughter of a United States soldier serving in
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...
and
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
.
* Joanna Woods – African-American lawyer defending a large pharmaceutical firm.
* Slimboy – Nigerian gay singer, tired of living a lie.
* Adrian Miller – American mathematician of
probability
Probability is the branch of mathematics concerning numerical descriptions of how likely an event is to occur, or how likely it is that a proposition is true. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and 1, where, roughly speaking, ...
, teacher at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
.
* Meredith Harper – British mathematician of
topology
In mathematics, topology (from the Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, without closing ...
, teacher at Princeton University.
* Jamy Pudlowski – Agent of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice ...
, in charge of
Psychological operations
Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), have been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations (MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and M ...
(PSYOP).
* André Vannier – French architect, manager of Vannier & Edelman. His relationship with Lucie, who is thirty years younger than him, is threatened.
Final page
The final page of the novel is in the form of a
calligram.
The last sentence leaves the reader with some work of creative interpretation. The letters, in increasing number, disappear from the page while the width of the lines decreases until there is only one character. It is an invitation to readers to restore an absent text. The first words are easy to guess: "et la tasse à café rouge de mar e I y da la ma de ctor" can be read "et la tasse à café rouge de marque Illy dans la main de Victor Miesel," and the following sentence could be: "et le diamant noir sur la bague d'Anne Vasseur."
The rest of the work is more difficult. Among others, there is the series of letters "u.l.c.é.r.a.t.i.o.n.s.," a reference to the extended heterogrammatic poem "Ulcérations" by
Georges Perec
Georges Perec (; 7 March 1936 – 3 March 1982) was a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist. He was a member of the Oulipo group. His father died as a soldier early in the Second World War and his mother was killed in the Hol ...
, which in 1974 was the first publication of
La Bibliothèque oulipienne La Bibliothèque oulipienne is a collection that hosts the works of the individual and collective members of the Oulipo. The short texts that compose them form a fabrique of playful literary creations.
This publication is limited to 150 numbered ...
. The last three letters can be read as forming the word "fin" ( en, end) vertically. The five preceding letters—"sable"—indicate another possible meaning: "sable fin" ( en, fine sand) evokes the granularity of time. However, if these last lines in the shape of an hourglass provide a key to the novel, it is a deliberately incomplete key. During a round table discussion held on 14 May 2021 at the in Paris, Hervé Le Tellier and nine of the translators of ''L'anomalie'' spoke at length about the final page. While confirming the existence of an underlying text, the author refused to make it known, preferring to leave it to readers and translators to reconstruct it.
Publication
On 4 January 2021, the novel reached a circulation of 820,000 copies.
On 6 May 2021, a circulation of one million copies was declared by
Éditions Gallimard
Éditions Gallimard (), formerly Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française (1911–1919) and Librairie Gallimard (1919–1961), is one of the leading French book publishers. In 2003 it and its subsidiaries published 1,418 titles.
Founded by Ga ...
and
GfK
GfK (originally german: GfK-Nürnberg Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung e.V., lit=Nuremberg Society for Consumer Research, label=none) is a provider of data and intelligence to the consumer goods industry. It is headquartered in Nuremberg, German ...
; this figure constitutes a threshold rarely reached by a Prix Goncourt-winning novel.
According to ''
Challenges'', thirty-seven translations were in progress as of January 2021.
Reception
Upon its release, the novel was selected to compete for the
Prix Goncourt
The Prix Goncourt (french: Le prix Goncourt, , ''The Goncourt Prize'') is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward o ...
,
Prix Renaudot
The Prix Théophraste-Renaudot or Prix Renaudot () is a French literary award.
History
The prize was created in 1926 by ten art critics awaiting the results of deliberation of the jury of the Prix Goncourt. While not officially related to the ...
,
Prix Médicis
The Prix Médicis is a French literary award given each year in November. It was founded in 1958 by and . It is awarded to an author whose "fame does not yet match his talent."
The award goes to a work of fiction in the French language. In 19 ...
,
Prix Décembre The ''Prix Décembre'', originally known as the ''Prix Novembre'', is one of France's premier literary awards. It was founded under the name ''Prix Novembre'' in 1989 by Philippe Dennery (Michel Dennery, according to other sources). In 1998, the fo ...
,
Prix du roman Fnac The prix du roman Fnac is a French literary award established in 2002 by the retail chain Fnac.
List of winners
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and
Prix Wepler
The prix Wepler is a French literary award established in 1998 at the initiative of the Abbesses Bookshop, with the support of the La Poste Foundation, and the Brasserie Wepler ( Place Clichy, 18th arrondissement of Paris) and which distinguishes ...
.
It was awarded the Prix Goncourt on 30 November 2020. The prize was announced through a
Zoom video link
Videotelephony, also known as videoconferencing and video teleconferencing, is the two-way or multipoint reception and transmission of audio and video signals by people in different locations for real time communication.McGraw-Hill Concise Ency ...
, the first time in history, due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
. The prize was also delayed, in solidarity with bookstores that were forced to shut down due to
lockdowns.
Derivative works
The writer wrote a
pastiche of the novel, entitled ''L'Anomalie du train 006 de Brive'', published by Éditions Herodios in June 2021. Hervé Le Tellier wrote the preface to the book.
Television adaptation
During an online "literary café" organized by the Escales des Lettres on April 16, 2021, Hervé Le Tellier announced that a television adaptation of the novel is in production.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anomaly, The
2020 French novels
Novels by Hervé Le Tellier
Oulipian works
Novels about architects
Novels about writers
Novels set in the 2020s
Novels set in Brooklyn
Novels set in Lagos
Novels set in London
Novels set in Manhattan
Novels set in Mumbai
Novels set in New Jersey
Novels set in Normandy
Novels set in Paris
Novels set in Philadelphia
Novels set in Queens, New York
Novels with gay themes
Works set on airplanes
Prix Goncourt winning works
Éditions Gallimard books
Fiction set in 2021
Aviation accidents and incidents in fiction
Fiction about assassinations
Simulated reality in fiction
Other Press books