And Their Children After Them

A Novel

By: Nicholas Mathieu

Narrated by: Jean Brassard

Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's Summary

August 1992. One afternoon during a heatwave in a lost valley somewhere in eastern France, with its dormant blast furnaces and its lake, 14-year-old Anthony and his cousin decide to steal a canoe to find out what it’s like on the other side at the famous nudist beach. The trip ultimately takes Anthony to his first love and a first summer that will determine everything that happens afterwards. 

Nicolas Mathieu conjures up a valley, an era, adolescence, and the political journey of a young generation that has to forge its own path in a dying world. Four summers and four defining moments, from “Smells Like Teen Spirit” to the 1998 World Cup, which encapsulate the hectic lives of the inhabitants of that intermediate France of medium-sized cities and their quiet residential estates, astride the countryside and the concrete expanses of the outer suburbs. 

And Their Children After Them is the portrait of a France far removed from the centers of globalization, alternating between decency and rage. A France where almost everybody lives, and which many people would like to forget.

©2018 Originally Published in French as Leurs Enfants Après Eux in 2018 by Actes Sud, Arles, France. © Actes Sud. Published by arrangement with Actes Sud and 2 Seas Literary Agency. English translation © 2020 by William Rodarmor (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

Too long

It may be because I couldn't find much to relate to with any of the characters as an American, but I found this book to be too long. I was into the story in the beginning but I just found myself losing interest the longer it went on. I kept waiting for something to happen to pull me back in, but nothing really ever did. And the sex - there was quite a bit of it and it was far too graphic, like the equivalent of watching a bad porno film. It seemed very out of place with the rest of the book, too. The whole book should have been far shorter. Or maybe if I were French I would have enjoyed it more.

I must be too stupid to get it?

The book is well written and the performance is well done. The ending is hot garbage on a stick!! Who is the cousin? Save your credit I bought it because I thought there would a lot of soccer in it. About 5min in the whole 15 hours.

The Locals

“And Their Children After Them” follows several teenagers and their parents in a French town after its main factory employer has shut down. Anthony, the main character, grows from 14 to 20 in the course of the book. He is an ordinary guy, struggling, innocent, sometimes obnoxious. The book regularly shifts from Anthony to others, including his pugnacious father, a would-be girlfriend and a sometimes sympathetic antagonist from the Moroccan immigrant community. The book becomes a mosaic, gradually building a portrait of the community through the interactions of the characters.

Life in the town is frustrating. The characters often find themselves looking for trouble, doing drugs, hooking up and committing petty crimes. Violence sometimes erupts. But the author is wholly sympathetic to his characters, who are basically good people in difficult times.

Jean Brassard provides perfect narration, with a light accent that makes the story seem more French. Overall, this was a rewarding and enjoyable read.