Introduction: The Art of War According to Lydie Salvayre

To present Lydie Salvayre’s work in progress is not an easy task. Her novels and short fictions impose a verbal intensity that resists description or assimilation. It is no coincidence that all the papers gathered in this issue deal with voice. Salvayre’s polyphonic pieces of writing have to be “read with the ears”: the rhythm, the funniness and the fabulous inventiveness of her prose may be highly stimulating for the reader, but they are almost impossible to describe. One has to experience Salvayre’s style in order to have an idea of that “little special thing” that makes her signature. But verbal intensity is not all there is to say about this contemporary writer. As one reads through the books she has published so far, one is struck by the recurrence of one main theme: war.