I'm Gone

Winner of France's prestigious Prix Goncourt and a runaway bestseller, Jean Echenoz's I'm Gone is the ideal introduction to the sly wit, unique voice, and colorful imagination of "the master magician of the contemporary French novel" ( The Washington Post ). Nothing less than a heist caper, an Arctic adventure story, a biting satire of the art world, and a meditation on love and lust and middle age all rolled into one fast-paced, unpredictable, and deliriously entertaining novel, I'm Gone tells the story of an urbane art and antiques dealer who abandons his wife and career to pursue a memorably pathetic international crime spree.

"Crisp and erudite" ( The Wall Street Journal ), "seductive and delicately ironic" ( The Economist ), and with an unexpected sting in its tail, I'm Gone --translated by Mark Polizzotti--is a dazzling, postmodern subversion of narrative conventions and an amused look at the absurdities of modern life. With a wink and a nod and a keen eye for the droll detail, Echenoz invites the reader "to enjoy I'm Gone in the same devil-may-care spirit in which it is offered" ( The Boston Sunday Globe ).