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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, \u003ci\u003eI'm Gone\u003c\/i\u003e tells the story of an urbane art and antiques dealer who abandons his wife and career to pursue a memorably pathetic international crime spree. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eCrisp and erudite (\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e), seductive and delicately ironic (\u003ci\u003eThe Economist\u003c\/i\u003e), and with an unexpected sting in its tail, \u003ci\u003eI'm Gone\u003c\/i\u003e--translated by Mark Polizzotti--is a dazzling, postmodern subversion of narrative conventions and an amused look at the absurdities of modern life. 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Set against the backdrop of the Soviet liberation and post–World War II communist rule of Czechoslovakia, Running—a bestseller in France—follows the famed career of Czech runner Emil Zátopek: a factory worker who, despite an initial contempt for athletics as a young man, is forced to participate in a footrace and soon develops a curious passion for the physical limits he discovers as a long-distance runner.  Zátopek, who tenaciously invents his own brutal training regimen, goes on to become a national hero, winning an unparalleled three gold medals at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics and breaking countless world records along the way. But just as his fame brings him upon the world stage, he must face the realities of an increasingly controlling regime.  Written in Echenoz’s signature style—elegant yet playful—Running is both a beautifully imagined and executed portrait of a man and his art, and a powerful depiction of a country’s propagandizing grasp on his fate.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49663539675409,"sku":"GOR002556775","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50477934903569,"sku":"CIN1595584730G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52688760045841,"sku":"NLS9781595584731","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53633709310225,"sku":"CIN1595584730VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1595584730.jpg?v=1751374903"},{"product_id":"ravel-book-jean-echenoz-9781595586704","title":"Ravel","description":"Ravel is a beguiling and original evocation of the last ten years in the life of the musical genius Ravel, written by novelist Jean Echenoz.  The book opens in 1928 as Maurice Ravel—dandy, eccentric, curmudgeon—crosses the Atlantic abroad the luxury liner the SS France to begin his triumphant grand tour of the United States. A “master magician of the French novel” (The Washington Post), Echenoz captures the folly of the era as well as its genius, including Ravel’s personal life—sartorially and socially splendid—as well as his most successful compositions from 1927 to 1937.  Illuminated by flashes of Echenoz’s characteristically sly humor, Ravel is a delightfully quirky portrait of a famous musician coping with the ups and downs of his illustrious career. 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I'm Gone tells the story of an urbane art dealer who abandons his wife and career to pursue a pathetic crime spree.'","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49893077123345,"sku":"GOR009290361","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50394700972305,"sku":"CIN1595589996A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51101501882641,"sku":"NIN9781595589996","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51299695100177,"sku":"CIN1595589996VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1595589996.jpg?v=1751182445"},{"product_id":"i-m-gone-book-jean-echenoz-9781565847460","title":"I'm Gone","description":"Winner of France's prestigious Prix Goncourt and a runaway bestseller, Jean Echenoz's \u003ci\u003eI'm Gone\u003c\/i\u003e is the ideal introduction to the sly wit, unique voice, and colorful imagination of the master magician of the contemporary French novel (\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e). 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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.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50034590122257,"sku":"CIN159558983XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50458141163793,"sku":"CIN159558983XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53225908797713,"sku":"GOR012228744","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53339037171985,"sku":"GOR014859262","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/159558983X.jpg?v=1778925035"},{"product_id":"special-envoy-book-jean-echenoz-9781620973127","title":"Special Envoy","description":"Jean Echenoz’s sly and playful novels have won critical and popular acclaim in France as well as in the United States, where he has been profiled by the New Yorker and called the \"most distinctive voice of his generation\" by theWashington Post. With his wonderfully droll and intriguing new work Special Envoy, Echenoz turns his hand to the espionage novel which, when published in France, stormed the bestseller lists.  Special Envoy begins with an old general in his dilapidated office in France’s intelligence agency asking his trusted lieutenant Paul Objat for ideas about a person he wants for a particular job: someone pretty, female, and easily manipulated. Objat has someone in mind: Constance, an attractive, restless, bored woman in a failing marriage to a washed-up pop musician. She is abducted by Objat’s cronies and spirited away into the bowels of France’s intelligence bureaucracy where she is trained for the mission to spearhead the destabilization of Kim Jong-un’s regime in North Korea.   Will Constance survive her mission in Pyongyang? Will her feckless husband ever write another pop hit? Joyously strange and unpredictable, full of twists and coincidences, Special Envoy is, in the words of L’Express \"a pure gem, a delight at all times, a comedy monument, a celebration of the French language.\"","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50038306996497,"sku":"CIN162097312XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50386103894289,"sku":"CIN162097312XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51040063979793,"sku":"NIN9781620973127","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52591254044945,"sku":"NLS9781620973127","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/162097312X.jpg?v=1751151856"},{"product_id":"piano-book-jean-echenoz-9781565848719","title":"Piano","description":"Max Delmarc, age fifty, is a famous concert pianist with two problems: the first is a paralyzing stage fright for which the second, alcohol, is the only treatment. 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The author takes us on a journey across radically different places and landscapes, giving free rein to a terrific sense of humour tinged with existential mischief' (L'Express).'","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51101517840657,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51101521314065,"sku":"NIN9781620970652","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51937546109201,"sku":"CIN1620970651G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52670926782737,"sku":"NLS9781620970652","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1620970651.jpg?v=1750896057"},{"product_id":"command-performance-book-jean-echenoz-9781681378558","title":"Command Performance","description":"\u003cb\u003eA thrilling, inventive, playful, and unorthodox detective and caper novel, the latest work by a French master.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"Fans of Jean-Patrick Manchette's deadpan irony will appreciate \u003ci\u003eCommand Performance\u003c\/i\u003e, Echenoz's vibrant, playful homage to the hard-boiled genre, which plays like \u003ci\u003eThe Big Lebowski\u003c\/i\u003e on the Seine.\" \u003ci\u003e-Publishers Weekly\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Gerard Fulmard is a loser. 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