Mr Gwyn

A British novelist in the prime of life, Jasper Gwyn has three novels to his name, which have earned him honest public and critical success. And yet he publishes an article in The Guardian in which he draws up a list of the fifty-two things he will no longer do, the last of which is: writing a novel.

His agent, Tom Bruce Shepperd, takes this declaration for a provocation, but, when he calls the writer, he understands that it is not one: Gwyn is entirely determined.

He simply does not know what he is going to do next. At the end of a sabbatical year, he has found it: he wants to create portraits, in the manner of a painter, but written portraits that are not banal descriptions.

To this end, he looks for a studio, takes care over the light, the soundscape and the décor, then sets off in search of models. This is the beginning of an extraordinary experiment that will put the repentant writer through a harsh trial.

What is an artist? Alessandro Baricco asks himself, in this intriguing, brilliant and tremendously elegant novel. To answer this question, he invites us to follow the path of his Mr Gwyn, half sophisticated game, half comical adventure. And, if he gives us the key to the Gwyn mystery, the outcome will naturally be unexpected.