Hervé Le Tellier and Indrek Koff

Hervé Le Tellier (1957) is a French writer, member of the legendary literary group Oulipo and its fourth president. Le Tellier has published over twenty books since 1991, including poetry, short stories, essays, novels and texts that are more experimental and test genre boundaries. It is no wonder, as the aims of Oulipo, founded as early as 1960, include finding new structures and patterns of writing fiction. Raymond Queneau, a leading figure of Oulipo, has described members of the group as rats building a maze from which they plan to escape. The influence of Queneau can be felt in Le Tellier’s most recent work, the novel L’anomalie which deals with the arbitrary nature of reality, the illusionary nature of truth and the reality of illusions. The same plane flying from Paris to New York is caught in a storm twice, in May and June 2021, so that there are simultaneously two versions of each passenger, whether they are assassins or Nigerian pop stars. In addition to its playful plot, L’anomalie is characterised by variegation of genres; one chapter can be a love story, another a thriller, yet another a mystery story etc. L’anomalie was awarded the most prestigious literary award in France, the Goncourt Prize. Hervé Le Tellier will speak to writer and translator Indrek Koff.