Someone's Trying to Find You

As he leaves the cinema where he has just watched "Casablanca", one of his favorite films, Julien is approached by a mysterious young woman, Claire. Unbeknownst to Julien, Claire has been following him for several days. Outside the cinema she relays a cryptic message: "Someone's trying to find you". She insists that as a practitioner of the little-known science of narrative psychology she is acting as the anonymous individual's intermediary. Slowly, Julien allows himself to be sucked into Claire's investigation, and a strange odyssey through his past ensues.

In this novel by Marc Auge, a master of ethnofiction, the two meet up in Paris cafes to discuss the events of their lives – Occupation and Liberation, the Algerian War, and 1968 – and Julien puzzles over who in his past could be searching for him. His ex-wife? An enigmatic lover from a seedy corner of Berlin? Soon, Julien realizes he is in the midst of a mysterious game of confession with a woman he knows nothing about. In a quick reversal, he shines the spotlight on Claire. Who is she and why are her questions so intense? Why does she seem focused on one particular year – 1968?

As the story unravels, we begin to understand that the puzzling nature of Claire's quest proves to be a metaphor for other enigmas, including the mysteries of the heart. Beautifully written, "Someone's Trying to Find You" is a haunting addition to Seagull's French List, and it should not be missed.