Wandering star : a novel / by J.M.G. Le Clézio ; translated by C. Dickson

Le Clezio is that rare combination of best-selling author and artist of the highest order. Wandering Star received extraordinary critical praise in France. Pierre Lepape extolled it in Le Monde, noting that Le Clezio neither moralizes nor takes a political stance: "He goes much farther than that, much deeper; he seeks the signs of human misery and of potential peace at the very heart of life, in a confrontation with time and the elements; with the sun and the earth, with birth and death, with the mystery of origins and the enigma of the future, with the necessity of both remembering and forgetting, without which nothing can be healed." Wandering Star tells two discrete stories of two young girls, one Jewish and one Palestinian, who meet once briefly by chance. Their stories are connected by substance, rather than plot. Each is a wandering star in search of a homeland-Esther escaping the Nazi holocaust, and Nejma, who experiences the horrors of life in the camps. Yet through this novel of dark times and human suffering, affirmation shines as the characters encounter the beauty of nature and instances of human kindness and love. "Wandering Star is a luminous lesson in humanity amid the ruins of civilization and intelligence."-Eric Deschodt, La Figuro "Wandering Star can unquestionably be ranked among the very great novels. This is true not only because of the precision and evocative power of the writing, the subtlety and balance of the construction, the magnitude and loftiness of the subject, but also because of the stature and the trajectory of the protagonist, Esther Greve, who survives the holocaust only to be confronted in the land of her dreams with another tragedy."-L' Humanite Author of over 20 novels, J.M.G. Le Clezio teaches at the University of New Mexico.