Veiller sur elle

A novel of art and time, Veiller sur elle alternates between the confession of a fictional sculptor, Mimo Vitaliani, and the “biography” of his masterpiece — a mysterious pietà whose hypnotic power troubles even the monks who watch over it. From Pietra d’Alba, a village of “slightly pink stone,” to the workshops of Florence and Rome, Mimo confronts the thousand promises of marble, the harshness of a graceless sculptor uncle, the temptation of modernity and the convulsions of Italy from the 1920s to the aftermath of the war, from the rise of fascism to the postwar years. Andréa achieves here what he has been exploring since Ma Reine: intimate epics carried by a novelistic lyricism, with wayward heroes who remake their world through narrative and creation. But Veiller sur elle broadens the scope: nearly 600 pages for a metaphysical fresco of jealousy and ambition, faith and art, in which the biography of a work of art ultimately illuminates a life — and, by extension, a century.

Already winner of the Prix du roman Fnac and a favorite on several shortlists (Femina, Interallié), the book gave L’Iconoclaste its first Prix Goncourt.

A very fine copy. It is “complete” with its three wraparound bands: the publisher’s band at publication, issued in July with the first printing; the “Prix du roman Fnac” band, issued in September (the prize having been awarded on August 30); and the Goncourt band, issued on November 8, the day after the prize was announced.