Panics

By: Barbara Molinard, Emma Ramadan (Translator), Marguerite Duras (Preface by)

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Paperback | 7 November 2024

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A close friend and protege of Marguerite Duras, Barbara Molinard (1921-1986) wrote and wrote feverishly, but only managed to publish one book in her lifetime: the surreal, nightmarish collection Panics.

These thirteen stories beat with a frantic, off-kilter rhythm as Molinard obsesses over sickness, death, and control. A woman becomes transfixed by a boa constrictor at her local zoo, mysterious surgeons dismember their patient, and the author narrates to Duras how she was stopped from sleeping in a cemetery vault, only to be haunted by the pain of sleeping on its stone floor.

In the unsettling tradition of Franz Kafka, Djuna Barnes, Leonora Carrington, and more, Panics recovers the work of a tormented writer who often destroyed her writing as soon as she produced it, and whose insights into violence, mental illness, and bodily autonomy are simultaneously absurdist and razor-sharp.

Industry Reviews

'Through Ramadan's spare and exacting translation, Molinard presents a terrifying portrait of violence and mental illness.'-The New York Times

'Startling and surreal... Ramadan's translation is a great gift to readers.' -Publishers Weekly (starred review)

'Dispensing with the ordinary rules of time, space, and motivation that govern our everyday, [Molinard] calls into question just what it means to be human.'-BOMB Magazine

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