Paper Tiger

“Paper Tiger is a brilliant novel that explores the complex intertwining of idealism and politics and violence, a critical theme in the early twenty-first century. But the book does far more. It also illuminates the universal longing by each human soul for self and connection and a way of living in a complex world. Olivier Rolin is a towering figure in French literature, and I am deeply grateful for his introduction into the English language by William Cloonan’s vigorous and smart and elegant translation. The publication of Paper Tiger in the United States is a literary event of major importance, for Rolin is a consummate artist who will speak profoundly to the American heart.”—Robert Olen Butler, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

“Martin, an aging French radical from the 60s, wonders where it all went and why. One night in 2000, when this rushing stream of a book is set, he broods out loud while driving around (and around and around) Paris with Marie, the 24-year-old daughter of his best friend from ‘the Cause.’ . . . [T]here are also treats that make the car ride worth taking, some serious . . . and others delightfully comic. . . . When the journey to the end of the night is over, the impression left behind (at once comforting and disturbing) is that history will make a paper tiger of every high hope and feared foe alike, no matter how seemingly imperishable.”— Alison McCulloch, New York Times Book Review