The Messengers

A Kafkaesque odyssey across a dreamlike, universal landscape

An unnamed adolescent drifter wanders through an unnamed country at an unspecified point in time in search of warmth and comfort. He finds it at a farm engaged in festivities but is immediately forced to flee the next morning after coveting the mysterious lady of the estate. Now a fugitive, the vagabond encounters and joins with another, a wry middle-aged man tasked with delivering a message sealed in a tube. The two pursue a dreamlike chain of clues and horror in their mission, encountering―as well as perpetrating―crime and cruelty, until the boy’s former aimlessness develops into an unexpected destiny. An at times unsettling narrative of initiation, the torments of desire and the death of youth, The Messengers is an oneiric exploration of a realm that embodies the parables of Kafka and the atmosphere of Alain-Fournier. This novella was the winner of the Prix des Nouvelles littéraires when it was first published in French in 1974.
Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud (born 1947) is a French novelist and short-story author. He has been the recipient of the Prix Renaudot, Prix Goncourt de la nouvelle, Prix Giono, Prix Valéry Larbaud and the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire.