Theseus, His New Life

Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Epigraph March 1, Two Thousand Five: Paris The Lineage of Men Who Die: 1937–39 Yesterday, I Reopened Boxes Full of Images: Berlin, 2017 The First Cracks: 1969–2005 Moving on from the Mother’s Face Finding the Brother Again: 2017–18 Tracing Back from the Wound: January 2019 And Then the Brother Started to Speak: Spring 2019 Nissim’s Letters: 1914–18 Talmaï’s Suicide: November 30, 1939 Postscript Landmarks Cover Cover Title Page Table of Contents Start Copyright Print Page List i ii iii iv v 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 93 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 215 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 
 
 
 
 PRAISE FORTheseus, His New Life
 “Camille de Toledo is one of the most interesting and original young authors writing in French today. In his latest book—his most personal and his most historical—he casts himself as a modern Theseus, trapped in a labyrinth that is at once the story of a family blighted by its own legends, and a reckoning with a body crippled by ailments that medical science proves incapable of identifying. Toledo provides a moving account of a journey through the maze of his family’s past.”
 —Ann Jefferson, author of Nathalie Sarraute: A Life Between
 “Theseus, His New Life is family history on a societal scale. We are not just characters on the bounded stage where our visible life plays out. Our part has been written by others, our masks have been painted by those who accumulate and confiscate. But the film is full of jump cuts, continuity errors, some of the dialogue is missing, and throughout this fine book Camille de Toledo examines the seams of his family history, which are also those of modern capitalism and its supposed human face. He does this firmly but gently, determined to free himself, through sensitivity, thought, and language, from the doubtful prose of profit.”
 —Éric Vuillard, Goncourt Prize–winning author of The Order of the Day
 “I have been reading and admiring the work of Camille de Toledo for over a decade. He is unique for 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Originally published in French as Thésée, sa vie nouvelle
 in 2020 by Éditions Verdier, Paris
 Copyright © Éditions Verdier, 2020
 Copyright © Camille de Toledo, 2020
 Published by arrangement with Agence littéraire Astier-Pécher
 Translation copyright © Willard Wood, 2023
 Production editor: Yvonne E. Cárdenas
 Text designer: Jennifer Daddio
 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from Other Press LLC, except in the case of brief quotations in reviews for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast. For information write to Other Press LLC, 267 Fifth Avenue, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10016.
 Or visit our Web site: www.otherpress.com
 The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
 Names: Toledo, Camille de, 1976- author. | Wood, Willard, translator.
 Title: Theseus, his new life / Camille de Toledo; translated from the French by Willard Wood.
 Other titles: Thésée, sa vie nouvelle. English
 Description: New York : Other Press, 2023. | Originally published in French as Thésée, sa vie nouvelle in 2020 by Éditions Verdier, Paris.
 Identifiers: LCCN 2022021011 (print) | LCCN 2022021012 (ebook) | ISBN 9781635422108 (paperback) | ISBN 9781635422115 (ebook)
 Subjects: LCGFT: Novels.
 Classification: LCC PQ2720.O44 T4413 2023 (print) | LCC PQ2720.O44 (ebook) | DDC 843/.92—dc23/eng/20220517
 LC record