The Name on the Wall: A Novel

The Name on the Wall: A Novel

Autofiction meets historical investigation in this compelling ode to a young French Resistance fighter killed during World War II—from the New York Times bestselling author of The Anomaly . Struck by a name written on a facade of his new home, acclaimed author Hervé Le Tellier embarked on a quest to recover the history of André Chaix, a resistance fighter, a maquisard, killed at the age of 20 in August 1944. Deftly combining historical fragments into a vivid narrative, Le Tellier invites us on a journey through one of the most troubled times: the inexhaustible Second World War. While avoiding simplistic, romantic tropes, he evokes the courage of a young man taking up arms, like many others, in what is also the story of a magnificent love with an equally impressive young woman, Simone. Made even more powerful and necessary by the current rise of fascism, The Name on the Wall gives voice to the ideals for which Chaix died and questions our deepest nature, this desire to belong to something greater than ourselves, which leads to the best and the worst. “An inquiry that poignantly revives the valor and tragedy of World War II…tender and precise…a stripped-down labor of love…The brief life that Mr. Le Tellier carefully reconstructs illuminates an era when so many ordinary people were called on to be extraordinary.” — Wall Street Journal “A stirring tale of valor and romance, death and duty during the darkest days of World War II.” — Los Angeles Times “Le Tellier…blends autobiography, biography, and fiction in this intriguing story of a French Resistance fighter…It’s an arresting testament to courage and humanity in the face of unspeakable evil.” —Publishers Weekly “A historical detective story…fascinating.” —Asymptote Journal “In Le Tellier’s work of autofiction, as in Marceline Loridan-Ivens’s But You Did Not Come Back , one man’s life and sacrifice provide some illumination of history, humanity, and, ultimately, more heartbreak.” —Library Journal “Extremely moving.” —Le Monde Praise for The Anomaly : “Enthralling…a profoundly affecting examination of free will, fate, reality, and the meaning of existence, cloaked in a high-concept plot that could have come from The Twilight Zone or Black Mirror …exists in that most excellent of Venn diagrams, where high entertainment meets serious literature.” — New York Times , Best Thrillers of the Year “With its elegant mix of science fiction and metaphysical mystery, Le Tellier’s thriller is…a flight of imagination you’ll be rolling over in your mind long after deplaning.” — Washington Post Hervé Le Tellier is a writer, journalist, mathematician, food critic, and teacher. He has been a member of the Oulipo group since 1992 and one of the “papous” of the famous France Culture radio show. He has published numerous books of stories, essays, memoir, and novels, including the Goncourt Prize–winning The Anomaly , which has sold more than one million copies worldwide, All Happy Families , Electrico W , and Enough About Love . Adriana Hunter studied French and Drama at the University of London. She has translated more than ninety books, including Marc Petitjean’s The Heart: Frida Kahlo in Paris and Hervé Le Tellier’s The Anomaly and Eléctrico W , winner of the French-American Foundation’s 2013 Translation Prize in Fiction. She lives in Kent, England. A Childhood Home I was looking for a “childhood home,” I’d explained to the real estate agent: not a vacation villa, not a “fixer-upper” ruin, not a “designer house,” not a “quirky property,” one of those sheepfolds or silkworm farms converted into a home where you knock your head on livestock-height doorframes. No, I wanted a house where I could invent some roots for myself, and also a house in a living village, where you can do your shopping in the grocery store and have a drink at the café, in the Provençal part of the Drôme region, where I’ve had friends for a long time. So I visited this former coaching inn, ventured briefly into the small vegetable garden at the back, with its views across to the summits of the Miélandre and the Grand Ruy, and ascended the stone staircase to the bedrooms and a dusty attic. Of course, I’d found it; this was my childhood home. A solid, thick-walled two-story building a couple of hundred years old, in the heart of the hamlet of La Paillette in Montjoux, very close to Dieulefit. Tina, the owner, was a ceramicist. She was also German. She’d lived there for nearly two decades until, at sixty-five, she felt the work was asking too much of her muscles and her back, and it was time she went to paint watercolors in Granville. Her work with clay channeled Nicolas de Staël dabbling in enamel, and a horizontal strip on the roadside façade of the house was covered with glazed ceramic plaques screwed to the wall at eye level. When she left, she took all but one of them with her. It was her gift and her mark, which I promised to preserve. When the last plaque at t