Lit in Translation

A Leopard-Skin Hat

Un chapeau léopard

Anne Serre (born 1960)

Translated by Mark Hutchinson

English editions

In English

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For fifteen or twenty years, more intensely as time goes on, the Narrator watches Fanny, his friend: from behind, from the side, and gently from the front, because she dislikes being looked in the eye. Her body is hard and firm, at times half dead, as if something inside it had set and stopped moving, and with his own poor words he tries to set life flowing in it again. Fanny cannot be fathomed. Now and then she shows unexpected sides: lost-looking, she can also be cheerful and teasing, and behind her smooth surface live other Fannys, one of whom once stole a leopard-print hat. Yet she bears a pain and is "different", and it is this difference the Narrator keeps questioning.

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About the book

Form
Novel
Length
137 pages in the original
First published
2008 by Mercure de France
Author's age
48 when first published
ISBN

9782715228504 (original)

9780811234511 (New Directions, United States)

9781915267245 (Lolli Editions, United Kingdom)

9781837311194 (Penguin Books, United Kingdom)

9780241791493 (Penguin Classics, United Kingdom)