The Old Man and the Wolves: A Novel

by Julia Kristeva, Barbara Bray (Translator)

Overview

Wolves have invaded the seaside resort town of Santa Varvara, a fictional postindustrial city in Eastern Europe, killing thousands of people, but no one will speak of it except a Latin professor known as the Old Man. Part detective story, part fable, this novel is set in a mythical landscape where the boundaries between East and West, civilization and barbarianism have been erased. Narrated by a French journalist—Stephanie Delacour, Julia Kristeva’s alter ego—The Old Man and the Wolves shows the great thinker at the height of her literary powers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231220873
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	10/21/2025
Pages:	183
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Julia Kristeva is professor emerita of linguistics at the Université de Paris VII. A renowned psychoanalyst, philosopher, and linguist, she has written dozens of books spanning semiotics, political theory, literary criticism, gender and sex, and cultural critique, as well as several novels and autobiographical works, published in English translation by Columbia University Press. Kristeva was the inaugural recipient of the Holberg International Memorial Prize in 2004 “for innovative explorations of questions on the intersection of language, culture, and literature.”

Barbara Bray (1924–2010) was a leading translator of twentieth-century French literature into English, including works by Marguerite Durgaas, Samuel Beckett, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean Anouilh, and Alain Robbe-Grillet.

Table of Contents

Part I. The Invasion
1. Whom Is One to Believe? Fear
2. Nothing—That’s What He Thinks
3. Anamorphoses
Part II. Detective Story
4. Neither More nor Less
5. No Point in Shouting for Help
6. Disparate Effects
Part III. Capriccio
7. By the Throat
8. Men of Sorrow
9. Where’s the Crime?

Editorial Reviews

In Kristeva’s version of the allegorical psychological thriller, the dream of a civilized and civilizing logic becomes transformed into the discontents’ chilling prayer to the wolves themselves.

Review of Contemporary Fiction

Kristeva’s experimental novel is an iridescent gem glinting with psychoanalytic speculations, shards of myth and classical lore, and musings on death, hate, love and the imagination.

Publishers Weekly

Of certain interest to enthusiasts of Kristeva's work and those interested in French intellectual culture, this tale is part detective story, part philosophical fable which takes place in the mythical, post-industrial landscape of Santa Varvara in Eastern Europe. When mysterious wolves descend on the town and people begin to disappear, one lone individual attempts to warn the town of the ominous reality and is dismissed by everyone except a young journalist whose detective work turns into a provocative personal journey. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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