Portrait of a Man Known as Il Condottiere

The posthumously published first novel from the acclaimed French author of Life: A User’s Manual offers “glimpses of Perec’s future greatness” ( The New Yorker ). Puckish and playful, Georges Perec infused avant-garde and experimental fiction with a wit and wonder that belied the serious concerns and concepts that underpinned it. A prominent member of the OuLiPo, and an abiding influence on fiction writers today, Perec used formal constraints to dazzling effect in such works as A Void —a murder