A Year in the Merde

Stephen Clarke

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English

Random House
01 October 2004

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945); Travel & holiday

There are lots of French people who are not at all hypocritical, inefficient, aggressive, arrogant, adulterous or incredibly sexy. They just didn't make it into this book ... A YEAR IN THE MERDE is the almost-true account of a year in the life of Brit expat, Stephen Clarke. Inspired partly by the culture shock on his arrival in Paris in September 2002, and partly by the enviable sales figures of Peter Mayle's ""A Year in Provence"", Stephen started keeping a diary of his hilarious experiences chez the French. As The Guardian newspaper reported, Stephen printed several hundred copies in his garage to send to friends, just for fun. Within a few weeks, however, his parodic novel became a word of mouth must have book in Paris and in some bookstores, outsold Clinton's memoirs.

The story of a 27-year-old lad, a cross between Hugh Grant and David Beckham who is hired to open a tearoom in Paris, Clarke recounts everything from the perils of slippery dog poo (650 Parisians hospitalised per year) to a deconstruction of extravagant lingerie. The best way to find an apartment in Paris? Get a French girlfriend and move in. The French way to treat a cold? Use a suppository. The French national sport? Going on strike.

This is a laugh-out-loud tale of the pleasures and perils of being a foreigner in France and why the entente may never be quite as cordiale as we would like it.

By: Stephen Clarke
Imprint: Random House
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 199mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 19mm
Weight: 304g
ISBN: 9781740513739
ISBN 10: 1740513738
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 01 October 2004
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

In 2004, Stephen Clarke, a British journalist, published A Year in the Merde, an almost-true account of what may or may not have happened to him in the ten previous years he'd lived in France. He originally published the novel in an edition of 200 copies, with the intention of selling them through his website, or giving them to his friends. However, following a reading in a Canadian bookshop in Paris and a write-up in a French newspaper, the book became a word-of-mouth bestseller, and was published around the world. To date it has sold over a million copies worldwide. Originally self-published in 2003, A Short History of the Future is Clarke's first novel. He has since gone on to write three more Merde novels, and three non-fiction books, including the Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller, 1000 Years of Annoying the French. He lives in Paris, where he divides his time between writing and not writing.