Lives Other Than My Own. A Memoir - Emmanuel Carrère;Linda Coverdale

SELECTED BY THE NEW YORK TIMES AS ONE OF THE 50 BEST MEMOIRS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS

A singular, deeply moving memoir of human connection in the wake of devastating loss, by the “prodigiously talented” (The New York Review of Books) Emmanuel Carrère

In Sri Lanka, a tsunami sweeps a child out to sea, her grandfather helpless against the onrushing water. In France, a woman succumbs to cancer, leaving a hole in the lives of her loved ones. Present at both events is Emmanuel Carrère, who sets out to tell the story of two families shattered and ultimately restored. What he accomplishes is nothing short of a literary miracle: a heartrending narrative of endless love, a meditation on courage and decency in the face of adversity, and an intimate and reverent look at the extraordinary beauty and nobility of ordinary lives. As he tells the stories of those touched by loss—most memorably, an unsentimental, one-legged judge who has made a career of fighting for France’s most vulnerable—Carrère himself, a longtime chronicler of his own tormented psyche, unexpectedly finds consolation and fulfillment in immersing himself in the lives of others.

Emmanuel Carrère, born in Paris in 1957, is a novelist, journalist, screenwriter, and film producer. He is the award-winning, internationally renowned author of V13, Yoga, 97,196 Words, The Kingdom, Limonov, The Mustache, Class Trip, The Adversary (a New York Times Notable Book), My Life as a Russian Novel, and Lives Other Than My Own, which was awarded the Globe de Cristal for Best Novel in 2010. For Limonov, Carrère received the Prix Renaudot and the Prix des Prix Littéraires in 2011 and the Europese Literatuurprijs in 2013.

Linda Coverdale is the award-winning translator of many French works and has been honored with the rank of Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for her contribution to French literature.

Praise for Lives Other Than My Own

“Whenever I try to describe this memoir—and I do that often, since it’s a book I don’t just recommend but implore people to read—I feel like I’m trying to parse a magic trick.”
— Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times Book Review

“You begin this memoir thinking it will be about one thing, and it turns into something else altogether—a book at once more ordinary and more extraordinary than any first impressions might allow.”
—The New York Times

“A beguiling writer…Graceful and important.”
—John Freeman, NPR

“Carrère’s memoir describes how a self-absorbed man is altered in crisis and develops a deep and perceptive capacity to see the struggles of others.”
—David Brooks, The New York Times

“In Lives Other Than My Own, Emmanuel Carrère demonstrates that empathy can be the antidote to alienation, if we try for it. With the finely measured assurance of Chekhov, he achieves something altogether unexpected in modern literature: beatitude.”
—Gary Indiana, author of Rent Boy and Horse Crazy

“Moving…his prose is precise and measured…Through interviews with friends and relatives of both families, Carrère creates powerful portraits that celebrate ordinary lives.”
—The New Yorker

“Carrère's masterful storytelling weaves together the tenuous threads of fate that link happiness with misfortune, turning the theme of love and loss into a riveting, unclassifiable narrative.”
—The Wall Street Journal

Praise for Emmanuel Carrère

“The current French intellectual scene has produced few such prolific and prodigiously talented personalities as Emmanuel Carrère.”
—The New York Review of Books

“Carrère is masterly both at singling out the telling detail and at grasping and conveying his subject as a whole . . . What is most compelling about his work is the quality of his mind, of his thinking. Of the scourging pressure of his need to understand.”
—Robert Gottlieb, The New York Times Book Review