Novel
Plan of Occupancy
L'Occupation des sols
Jean Echenoz · 1988
Synopsis
A fire has destroyed Fabre's apartment and, with it, all his memories. Of Sylvie, his wife, who has died, only one image remains: an immense perfume advertisement painted on the gable end of a building near the quai de Valmy, for which she had posed. Every week, Fabre comes to look at it with his son Paul. But the neighbourhood is changing, the building is slated for renovation, and a building site begins to creep towards the foot of the wall.
Context
The text appeared in 1988 from Minuit, in a volume of twenty-four pages, and has only sixteen pages of narrative. Pierre Lepape spoke of it in Le Monde as a little marvel, for which he would gladly have exchanged most of the French novels of the moment. Mark Polizzotti translated it into English in 1995. In March 2026, Guy Delisle made an eighty-page comic from it at Gallimard, which had to flesh out so brief a narrative rather than tighten it.
Who it is for
A narrative of sixteen pages, which can be read in one sitting; every sentence is weighed and rewards rereading.
Prizes and reception
Translated into English by Mark Polizzotti in 1995, and adapted as a graphic novel by Guy Delisle thirty-eight years after its publication.
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