The Sunset Lands

A never-before-translated, dreamlike epic of a willfully blind empire on the verge of collapse

Written in the mid-1950s but only published posthumously half a century later, The Sunset Lands portrays both a world and the ending of that world in terms that draw on myth, symbol, fable and history. The Kingdom, a declining civilization, is threatened at its borders by a barbarian invasion. An unnamed narrator sets out, with a small group of companions, to confront a threat that the Kingdom's authorities stubbornly refuse to acknowledge. What begins as a quest to the besieged frontier city of Roscharta gradually shifts into something much darker in tone. With Gracq's own wartime experiences informing this exploration of barbaric horrors and existential destinies, The Sunset Lands confronts what it means to live without despair while facing the prospect of death. Only recently uncovered in 2014, this major work finally sees the light of day in a masterful English translation.
Julien Gracq (1910-2007), born Louis Poirier, was known for such dreamlike novels as The Castle of Argol, A Dark Stranger, The Opposing Shore (for which he refused the Prix Goncourt) and Balcony in the Forest.