Description

‘A beautiful book about the best minds of a generation and the devastation of war – an outrageous voyage from the past that speaks eloquently to our present’ Deborah Levy

March 1941. A converted cargo ship, the Paul-Lemerle, left Marseille on a voyage to the Caribbean, fleeing Vichy France and the devastation of the war. The ship was filled with immigrants from the East, exiled Spanish Republicans, Jews, stateless persons and decadent artists. Among them were Claude Levi-Strauss, the painter Wifredo Lam, the writers Anna Seghers and Andre Breton, and the Russian revolutionary Victor Serge.

Can we know the taste of pineapple from listening to travellers’ tales? asks Bosc in the follow-up to his bestselling debut. Can we ever feel the sensation of history? Mixing the documentary techniques of history, the imaginative leaps of fiction and the cool analysis of the essay, Bosc takes us from Marseille to Casablanca to Martinique and on to New York, to tell an evocative story of migration, cultural crisis and the intellectual cost of the rise of fascism.

Publisher Review

An intellectually star-studded and dreamy document, Outrageous Horizon leads the reader irresistibly along, and leaves a lingering sense of amazement in its wake -- Geoff Dyer An outlaws' odyssey of the Second World War -- Eric Vuillard, author * The Order of the Day * Outrageous Horizon is an erudite, brilliantly imagined odyssey into exile that weaves historic narrative, psychological writing, and cultural history. With his immersive portrait of a distinguished cast of mid-20th century refugees, Adrien Bosc guides us into the choppy seas of our own present moment where catastrophe, once again, meets opportunity -- Kapka Kassabova, author * Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe * A beautiful book about the best minds of a generation and the devastation of war - an outrageous voyage from the past that speaks eloquently to our present -- Deborah Levy, author * Hot Milk * Erudite and charming * Vanity Fair *