The Erasers
by Alain Robbe-Grillet Translated from French by Richard Howard“I doubt that fiction as art can any longer be seriously discussed without Robbe-Grillet.” –The New York Times
“I doubt that fiction as art can any longer be seriously discussed without Robbe-Grillet.” –The New York Times
Alain Robbe-Grillet is internationally hailed as the chief spokesman for the noveau roman and one of the great novelists of the twentieth century. The Erasers, his first novel, reads like a detective story but is primarily concerned with weaving and then probing a complete mixture of fact and fantasy. The narrative spans the twenty-four-hour period following a series of eight murders in eight days, presumably the work of a terrorist group. After the ninth murder, the investigation is turned over to a police agent, who may in fact be the assassin.
Both an engrossing mystery and a sinister deconstruction of reality, The Erasers intrigues and unnerves with equal force as it pull us along to its ominous conclusion.
“Alain Robbe-Grillet is the forerunner of a revolution in the novel more radical than Romanticism and Naturalism were in their time.” –Claude Mauriac
“A haunting, mystifying evocation of a murder that will keep your attention riveted.” –The Dallas Morning News
“I can think of no other writer who can render the banal so fearfully fantastic. In the subtlest, slyest, and most sheerly delightful way he persuades us to look anew at the commonplace.” –Books and Bookmen
“I doubt that fiction as art can any longer be seriously discussed without Robbe-Grillet.” –The New York Times