W, or the Memory of Childhood

From the author of Life A User’s Manual comes an equally mind-bending novel: an interpretive vision of the Holocaust and a dystopian world.

W or The Memory of Childhood is a narrative that reflects a great writer’s effort to come to terms with his childhood during the Nazi occupation of France.

Perec tells two parallel stories. The first is autobiographical, describing his wartime boyhood. The second tale, denser, more disturbing, more horrifying, is the allegorical story of W, a mythical isl...