FARAWAY THE SOUTHERN SKY by Joseph Andras

Translated by Simon Leser

Inhabiting that odd little corner of book world where the line between fact and fiction blurs into insignificance, Joseph Andras - much like Benjamin Labatut and Eric Vuillard - has a funny idea of what constitutes a novel. Sticking very closely to historical fact, with little creative embellishment, he writes the kind of books that all but the greatest stickler might consider narrative non-fiction. And yet, there’s something unsettling in how he seems to subvert the record; something almost mystical in its elusiveness.

In Faraway the Southern Sky, Andras rather fittingly turns his gaze to one of the 20th century’s most elusive world leaders, Ho Chi Minh. In particular, Andras skips to Paris, where the future Vietnamese President spent a few formative years, changing names and homes more often than I change my underwear. Little is known of Uncle Ho’s time there, and this allows Andras the space to build a fascinating portrait, all rendered in the second person, as if it is the reader who is searching. Maybe he was in this house. Perhaps he worked here. It’s a pretty cool undertaking, speculative history built from the wisps of a man’s possible presence left behind in the Parisian air.

Faraway the Southern Sky by Joseph Andras (Tr. Simon Leser)
Verso, 2024
80 pages