Three by Echenoz: Big Blondes, Piano, and Running

A single volume that gathers together three of the most remarkable novels from Jean Echenoz, the "most distinctive French voice of his generation" ( The Washington Post ), Three by Echenoz demonstrates the award-winning author's extraordinary versatility and elegant yet playful style at its finest. "A parodic thriller sparkling with wit" ( L'Humanité ), Big Blondes probes our universal obsession with fame as a television documentary producer tries to track down a renowned singer who has mysteriously disappeared. A darkly comedic, noir-style tour de force, it finally answers the age-old question: do blondes have more fun? "Fluid, never forced...like a garment that fits beautifully even inside-out" ( Elle ), Piano brings Dante's Inferno to contemporary Paris, following Max Delmarc, a concert pianist suffering from paralyzing stage fright and alchoholism, as he meets his untimely death and descends through [...]purgatory—part luxury hotel, part minimum-security prison—into a modern vision of hell. Running is "a small wonder of writing and humanity" ( L'Express )—a portrait of the legendary Czech athlete Emil Zátopek, who became a national hero, winning three gold medals at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics even as he was compelled to face the unyielding realities of life under an authoritarian regime.