The Horde of the Counterwind

The Horde of the Counterwind

1,000 pages

Hardcover

Genre: Philosophy, Nature, Fiction, Literature, Literary Novel
Alain Damasio's cult novel

Imagine a world shaken by winds whose force surpasses our understanding. Imagine a group of men born to face those winds until their final breaths. Within the deafening noise of the wind, on the Lower Slopes, an elite group of twenty-three children were raised for the sole purpose of facing the ever blowing gusts, climbing up windwards for the rest of their lives. Their goal: to find the mysterious source of the wind in the Upper Reaches. There have been thirty-three attempts in eight hundred years, thirty-three Hordes that have failed. My name is Sov, scribe. I’m here today to talk to you in the name of the thirty-fourth, and most probably the last...

Awards

Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire

Rated 9th on the list of the best French novels of all times by Le Monde

German title: Die Horde im Gegenwind - Roman
ISBN: 978-3-7518-0078-5
Publisher: Matthes & Seitz Berlin
Publication date: 07.03.2024
Sold to: Russische Föderation, Bulgaria, Italy, Germany

Sample translation

French original text available

Complete English and German translation available

Alain Damasio is a writer, sociologist, co-founder of the video game studio Dontnod and the sound art studio Tarabust. Born in 1969, ESSEC graduate, he has been giving TEDx talks since 2014. Wth his 3 novels he became a cult author and France most read science fiction writer.

“A striking novel that grips you from the very first page and won’t let you go before it comes to a conclusion and even for a long time afterwards. Damasio has taken on every kind of challenge and won his bet: The Horde of Counterwind is a masterpiece.” Le Monde


“A real gem, born from the literary pillars of classicism. This brilliant, disturbing allegorical text is totally mind-boggling.” Le Figaro


“In this novel one finds a style of writing, an ambition, an unfettered freedom that has been missing from French science-fiction.” Télérama