J. M. G. Le Clézio

"Not one dream but many unfold in J.M.G. Le Clezio's conjuring of the consciousness of Mexico, a powerful evocation of the imaginings that made and unmade an ancient culture. "What motivated me," Le Clezio has said, "was a sort of dream about what has disappeared and what could have been." A widely respected French novelist who for many years has studied pre-Columbian Mexico, Le Clezio imagined how the thought of early Indian civilizations might have evolved if not for the interruption of European conquest." "In an unprecedented way, his book takes us into the dream that was the religion of the Aztecs, which in its own apocalyptic visions anticipated the coming of the Spanish conquerors. Here the dream of the conquistadores rises before us, too, the glimmering idea of gold drawing Europe into the Mexican dream. Against the religion and thought of the Aztecs and the Tarascans and the Europeans in Mexico, Le Clezio also shows us those of the "barbarians" of the north, the nomadic Indians beyond the pale of the Aztec frontier." "Finally, Le Clezio's book is a dream of the present, a meditation on what in Amerindian civilizations - in their language, in their way of telling tales, of wanting to survive their own destruction - moved the poet, playwright, and actor Antonin Artaud and motivates Le Clezio in this book. The author's deep identification with pre-Columbian cultures, whose faith told them the wheel of time would bring their gods and their beliefs back to them, finds fitting expression in this extraordinary book, which brings the dream around."--Jacket.

Onitsha tells the story of Fintan, a youth who travels to Africa in 1948 with his Italian mother to join the English father he has never met. Fintan is initially enchanted by the exotic world he discovers in Onitsha, a bustling city prominently situated on the eastern bank of the Niger River. But gradually he comes to recognize the intolerance and brutality of the colonial system. His youthful point of view provides the novel with a notably direct, horrified perspective on racism and colonialism. A startling account - and indictment - of colonialism, Onitsha is also a work of clear, forthright prose that ably portrays both colonial Nigeria and a young boy's growing outrage.

Obsessed with the idea of finding the Corsair treasure he heard about in his youth, Alexis L'Etang abandons his job and family, setting off on a quest that will take him from remote tropical islands to the hell of the First World War, and from a love affair with the elusive Ouma to a momentous confrontation with the search that has consumed his life.

A little boy is bored and dreams of traveling deep into the forest, where he meets a profound old oak and gets invited to a party by some young trees.

A collection of eight short stories in which Nobel Prize-winning author J.M.G. Le Clézio examines a longing for life outside of the confines of modern existence.