Hold Fast Your Crown

Shortlisted for the 2017 Prix Goncourt

“A story of madness, art, alcohol and creativity…elegantly translated…vivid.” —New York Times

“[An] audacious novel…The book’s charm lies in its determination to take outlandish risks.” —The New Yorker

“[A] unique, ecstatic novel.” —Wall Street Journal

“Entertaining.” —New York Times Book Review

“The delightfully deluded protagonist of [Hold Fast Your Crown] juggles high and pop culture references with aplomb and a light touch…This is a stimulating novel, full of mischief and clever curveballs.” —Publishers Weekly

“This wildly ambitious novel audaciously layers on metaphors that explore truth, film and art, and the essence of life.” —Booklist

“Hold Fast Your Crown is French literature at its best…it works, in no small measure thanks to Haenel’s strange and haunting prose…stimulating…beautiful and memorable.” —PopMatters

“Undeniably dazzling…a remarkable, sustained, high-wire act, a book that seems constantly to teeter on the edge of disaster without ever quite succumbing. Hold Fast Your Crown thrives on Haenel’s buoyant prose.” —New York Journal of Books

“Crazy, brilliant, addictive, and darkly poetic.” —Le Figaro

“Wonderfully mad.” —Le Parisien

“A wild novel, a blaze of astounding images.” —L’Obs

“Intense…a book of visions, fantasies, and obsessions.” —Le Monde

“Written on the razor’s edge, in a perpetual tension, this profound and hallucinatory book is a firecracker.” —Le Canard enchaîné

“A literary fever and fervor that speak volumes.” —Lire