The Furrow by Valérie Manteau (paperback)

“A turbulent, violent world that is both fraught with terror and teeming with life.”—Annie Ernaux
 
First published in France to major acclaim, The Furrow follows a French writer living with her lover in an Istanbul caught in the turmoil of Erdoğan’s rule. As the city around her strains under the weight of disorder and conflict, she discovers the story of Hrant Dink, the Turkish-Armenian journalist whose life and assassination become a catalyzing force for Turkish resistance writ large and for the narrator’s own writerly ambition. Manteau’s singular rhythm and sinuous prose deliver a novel that stretches the seams of historical memory and personal narrative. As the narrator’s voice disintegrates into the tangled language of her community, Manteau asks us to question who is telling what story and why. At once a feminist reading and fervent defence of democracy, Manteau’s second novel—and first work to appear in English—galvanizes the reader to inhabit the feeling of collective resistance.
 
Winner of the Prix Renaudot, The Furrow arrives at a critical time in the contemporary zeitgeist, as authoritarianism becomes an ever greater presence across the world and collective action an ever more urgent imperative.
 
Valérie Manteau is a French writer and editor based in Marseille. Her novel The Furrow won the 2018 Prix Renaudot and has sold over 100,000 copies in France. She is also the author of Calme et tranquille (2016) and Entre chiens et loups (2025), and she was formerly a contributing editor to Charlie Hebdo.
Claire Foster is a writer, bookseller, and literary translator from French. She is the translator of Pierre Clémenti’s 1973 memoir, A Few Personal Messages (Small Press, 2022). Born and raised in Ohio, she lives and works in Toronto.
 
BISAC
Fiction / Literary
Fiction / Feminist
Fiction / Psychological