Portail des médiathèques du réseau Paris-Saclay

In 1965, a young research scientist named Margot Sharpe meets Elihu Hoopes, the subject of her study, a handsome amnesiac who cannot remember anything beyond the last seventy seconds. Over the course of thirty years, the two embark on mirroring journeys of self-discovery. Margot, enthralled by her charming, mysterious, and deeply lonely patient, as well as her officious supervisor, attempts to unlock Eli’s shuttered memories of a childhood trauma without losing her own sense of identity in the process. And Eli, haunted by memories of an unknown girl’s body underneath the surface of a lake, pushes to finally know himself once again, despite potentially devastating consequences. As Margot and Eli meet over and over again, Joyce Carol Oates’ tightly written, nearly clinical prose propels the lives of these two characters forwards, both suspended in a dream-like, shadowy present, and seemingly balanced on the thinnest, sharpest of lines between past and future. Made vivid by Oates’ eye for detail and searing insight into the human psyche, The Man Without a Shadow is an eerie, ambitious, and structurally complex novel, as poignant as it is thrilling.

"A young woman from Nigeria leaves behind her home and her first love to start a new life in America, only to find her dreams are not all she expected"

Des adolescents amoureux s'efforcent de percer le mystère des filles Lisbon. Du haut d'une cabane nichée dans les arbres, ils passent leur temps à scruter les fenêtres de leur maison. Vingt ans plus tard, ils rassemblent des fragments de ragots et de ouï-dire, de conversations téléphoniques, de rapports de médecins et de confessions crues et tourmentées. Autant de pièces à conviction qui expliqueront peut-être les morts successives de Cécilia, Thérèse, Bonnie, Lux et Mary.