The Impersonal Adventure

A disorienting, de Chirico-esque detective tale of curio shops and eerie antiquities, penned in France's postwar trauma

A traveling businessman decides to tarry in an unnamed city, dons a new name and profession on a whim, and rents a room in a hotel on an island at the city's edge. As he wanders through the streets of unvisited storefronts and offices, he encounters a strange constellation of characters: a sinister night watchman; his spiritual half-brother, the "professor"; and a mute beau...