7.2 /10 1 Votes
Language French Pages 170 Preceded by The Enemy's Cosmetique Genre Novel Country Belgium | 3.6/5 Goodreads Publication date 2002 ISBN 2-226-13389-5 Originally published 2002 Page count 170 Translator Shaun Whiteside | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Original title Robert des noms propres Similar Amélie Nothomb books, Novels | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Book of Proper Names (French: Robert des noms propres) is a Belgian novel by Amélie Nothomb. It was first published in 2002. It is a romanticized account of the life of the singer RoBERT, whom Nothomb became acquainted with as an avid admirer of her songs.
Plot
In a vaguely surreal story, an extraordinary little girl is born from strange circumstances - her mother murdered her father, gave birth in prison, and then hanged herself. Plectrude, as the girl is unfortunately named by her mother, is adopted by her aunt and lives a fairy-like existence until she enrolls into the Paris Opera Ballet School, a rigorous institution portrayed as a "scalpel to slice away the last flesh of childhood."
References
The Book of Proper Names Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA