UK reviews:

‘In this timely novella about a Russian military conscript defecting from the army, 20-year-old Aliocha is on the Trans-Siberian railway from Moscow to Vladivostok, spanning almost a quarter of the Earth’s circumference. When he gets there he plans to “hide, remake himself and earn enough to get back to the west”. But no literary train journey would be complete without encountering a stranger – in this case Hélène, a Frenchwoman who has her own secrets. Through a combination of clothes swapping, psychological gameplay and simply hiding in a toilet, the two play cat and mouse with the senior Russian officer moving inexorably along the train. The result is a balance of internal thought and external action propelled by a narrative that races on in long sentences, keeping things flowing beautifully in between moments of drama.’
– John Self, Guardian best recent translated fiction

Reviewed by Ángel Gurría-Quintana in the Financial Times’ Best Books of 2022 and by Preti Taneja in the New Statesman’s Best Books of the Year

‘Using unadorned prose, de Kerangal repeatedly constructs anxious moments which defy any sense of inevitability or conclusion’
– Declan O’Driscoll, Irish Times

‘As well as chiming with current world events, this is a very personal story of two lost souls, reluctantly but irresistibly drawn together […] Their brief intimacy is beautifully rendered, a stark contrast to the violence of the world around them – a touch of humanity in a sea of brutality. And the story of Aliocha’s escape is loaded with tension and suspense, to the point where it is almost like thriller.’
– Paul Burke, Riveting Reviews, European Literature Network

Published in North America by Archipelago Books in 2023

US reviews:

Listed in the NY Times’ 10 Best Books of 2023

‘Though they can only communicate in gestures, Aliocha begs for Hélène’s help, and the lengths they eventually go—and the repercussions—will do a number on your heart.’ — Jeff Giles, Executive Hollywood Editor, Vanity Fair, The 20 Best Books to Read in 2023

‘[I]mpeccable novel. . . De Kerangal’s triumphant achievement is powered by mellifluous prose with a rhythm as steady as the train. Readers are in for a dazzling literary ride.’
— Publishers Weekly

‘In de Kerangal’s brief, lyrical novel, translated by Jessica Moore, a young Russian soldier on a trans-Siberian train decides to desert and turns to a civilian passenger, a Frenchwoman, for help.’ — New York Times, 100 Notable Books of 2023

‘The work of translation is revealed to be both poignant and practical – Hélène doesn’t share a language with Aliocha, either, and from the moment she introduces herself, with a palm on her sternum, they spend many hours working together through gestures. […] The journey takes place in the course of several days, but feels like one all-nighter: Aliocha, like Paula, of Painting Time, is working against the clock. […] It takes immense skill, patience, and clarity to paint time, to render the melee of past and present, symbolic and real. Language may not be what allows us to see it, but in the right hands we can get close.’
– Lauren Oyler, The New Yorker

‘As the novel opens, more than a hundred new conscripts are packed, many of them standing, virtually all of them smoking, into the third-class cars of a trans-Siberian train going east. They haven’t been told their destination, a relatively small indignity. They’ve already been marked as losers for not having evaded Russia’s annual spring draft, as the more affluent and better-connected have. They expect to be hazed in their barracks by second-year conscripts who may rape them, burn their genitals with cigarettes or make them lick the toilets. You can imagine the esprit de corps. In Maylis de Kerangal’s luminous vision, conveyed by the inspired translator Jessica Moore, Siberia’s immensity dwarfs human perspective. The insecurity of existence across this vastness and on board the train emphasizes the significance of human connection. In a time of war, this connection may bring liberation and salvation.’ 
— Ken Kalfus, New York Times

‘The crisp, cascading sentences; the delicious mixture of fear and romance; the harmonious balance of story and language: these are characteristics of each of Ms. de Kerangal’s books, which spring from subjects as diverse as a heart transplant, the construction of a suspension bridge and the Lascaux cave paintings. Eastbound, being the shortest, is a fine entry point to her work, but any one will do. The important thing is to not deprive yourself of this first-rate author.’
— Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal

‘Eastbound is an antiwar story in which no bullets are fired and not a single battle is fought … The new English translation, by an insightful poet named Jessica Moore, would be worthwhile in any geopolitical climate. But in one shaped by Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, it’s tragically timely.’
— World Literature Today

‘In mysterious, winding sentences gorgeously translated by Jessica Moore, De Kerangal gives us the story of two unlikely souls entwined in a quest for freedom with a striking sense of tenderness, sharply contrasting the brutality of the surrounding world.’
— Book Riot

‘With each new novel, de Kerangal secures her place as a writer of stunning, incisive, enrapturing fiction; it’s a boon to have this sensuous, soulful, and suspenseful earlier work so gorgeously translated into English by Jessica Moore.’
— Booklist

Also reviewed in: Toronto Star, The New Criterion, On the Seawall, Rough Ghosts, First Reading (Grant Rintoul) The Atlantic Daily Newsletter, Triumph of the Now

Published in France by Editions Verticales in 2012

French reviews:

‘A flight that is as intoxicating as it is nerve-wracking, in which we grasp the doubts, the urgency and the secret bond between the two fugitives at lightning speed. We see how faces and landscapes dissolve in the non-place of the train, at once fixed and in perpetual motion.’
– ELLE

‘With seismographic sensitivity, she enters the minds of her characters to capture their slightest emotional vibrations […] In her pages we find both coarseness and flights of the soul, all evoked in tight, surgical prose which hides nothing and which holds reality strangely, at arm’s length.’ 
– La Croix

‘A fleeting, urgent tête-à-tête which explores the narrative possibilities of the machine in movement.’ 
– Magazine Littéraire

‘Full of richness and life, the writing of the author of Birth of a Bridge continues to dilate, to seethe, propelling words through sentences that are organic and frantic like blood vessels. In a ballet of sidesteps, a man and a woman attempt to bring their aloneness together. Through an ardent game of attraction and evasion, Maylis de Kerangal records the seismic waves of every encounter, human or geographical.’  
– Télérama

10 Best Books of 2023, New York Times, 28 November 2023: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/28/books/review/best-books-2023.html

‘100 Notable Books of 2023’, New York Times, 21 November 2023: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/11/21/books/notable-books.html

‘The Novelist Watching Us’, Lauren Oyler, New Yorker, 20 March 2023: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/03/20/maylis-de-kerangal-eastbound-book-review

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/oct/28/the-best-recent-translated-fiction-review-roundup John Self, The Guardian best recent translated fiction

‘Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal’, World Literature Today, March 2023: https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2023/march/eastbound-maylis-de-kerangal

https://www.eurolitnetwork.com/rivetingreviews-paul-burke-reviews-eastbound-by-maylis-de-kerangal/ Paul Burke, European Literature Network

‘New Releases: Week of February 7, 2023’, Book Riot, February 2023: https://insiders.bookriot.com/new-release-index-demo/

‘PW Picks: Books of the Week’, Publisher Weekly, 6 February 2023: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/91430-pw-picks-books-of-the-week-february-6-2023.html

Praise for The Heart (also published as Mend the Living)

'The Heart is an unusual and often-ravishing novel . . . de Kerangal’s long, rolling sentences pulse along in systolic thumps, each beat punctuated by a comma; they’re packed with emotional intensity’ — Jennifer Senior, The New York Times

‘I read The Heart in a single sitting. It is a gripping, deceptively simple tale—a death, a life resurrected—in which you follow along as everyone touched by the events is made to reveal what matters most to them in their lives. I was completely absorbed.’ — Atul Gawande, author of Being Mortal

‘From its first, hurtling, paragraph-long sentence, this novel vividly dramatizes each step in the organ-donation process . . . It’s the kind of science writing that’s too uncommon, inspiring wonder not by insisting on it but by chronicling every detail.’— The New Yorker

‘I’ve seldom read a more moving book . . . De Kerangal is a master of momentum, to the extent that when the book ends, the reader feels bereft. She shows that narratives around illness and pain can energize the nobler angels of our nature and make for profoundly lovely art. One longs for more.’ — Lydia Kiesling, The Guardian

‘Layered, meditative . . . illuminated in rich language . . . This novel is an exploration not only of death but of life, of humanity and fragility . . . the story is propelled by a series of recognitions — incremental, articulated, human moments: narrative earthquakes that break open and pull us deeper into the story.’— Priya Parmar, The New York Times Book Review

‘A novel that goes to the heart of what it means to be a human being’ — Amanda Hopkinson, Independent

‘The Heart is, quite simply, breathtaking in its linguistic precision and impressive in its narrative vision, a feat of textual dexterity made visible in English by Sam Taylor's excellent translation.’ — Alexandra Primiani, Music and Literature

‘Urgent, breathless, visceral prose . . . Long after reading this extraordinary novel that etches itself in the mind, it will be impossible to forget.’— Eileen Battersby, Irish Times


Praise for Painting Time

‘There is something magnificently true about De Kerangal’s fiction, which braids technical fluency with winged prose . . . 'Capsules of pure sensation' – it’s a description worth stealing to describe this novel, which is strung together image by beautiful image. This is writing that defies haste, that slows the eye . . . one of contemporary fiction’s most gifted sentence builders.’ — Beejay Silcox, The Guardian

‘Who else writes with such poetry about the tools of trade, and the intricacies of work? Michael Ondaatje springs to mind, but Maylis de Kerangal is mining a rich and individual seam.’ — Jonathan Gibbs, Times Literary Supplement

‘Celebrated French novelist Kerangal . . . is a master of the metaphysical bildungsroman . . . [An] enthralling tale of vocation, discovery, and love . . . Kerangal balances the gloriously sensuous with the deeply reflective in an exquisite and omniscient streaming narration as she explores the title's implications . . . Kerangal’s elegant, sexy, subtly Proustian, and fluidly dimensional drama of discipline and passion, imitation and imagination is resplendently evocative and exhilarating.’ — Donna Seaman, Booklist


Praise for The Cook


‘A slim, bountiful, beautifully written (and gorgeously translated) 'Portrait of the Chef as a Young Man.’— Nancy Klinke, The New York Times Book Review

‘Brief but superb . . . the book is restrained, private, and careful.’ — The New Yorker

‘This short book, beautifully translated by Sam Taylor, reads like a prose poem . . . de Kerangal’s food writing is incantatory; the accumulation of minutiae hypnotic . . . I was left hungry for more.’ — Moira Hodgson, Wall Street Journal