Théo Casciani
Retina
Forthcoming: January 2027
First published by Éditions P.O.L. in 2019, Théo Casciani's debut novel has been acclaimed by Fabrice Gabriel as "opening the era of nouveau nouveau nouveau roman". Retina is a ceaseless ekphrasis of images that span space and time, from the preparation of an exhibition for Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster in Kobe, Japan, to the quest for a lover in Berlin on the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Wall. Capturing in prose such a vast and brilliant array of images, Retina is an exhibition in itself.
Author
Théo Casciani (b. 1995, Paris) is a French author whose work explores the intersection of literature, performance, and digital space. He studied at Sciences Po and Sorbonne University before joining La Cambre in Brussels, where he now lectures on literature and creative writing. His fiction has been presented internationally at institutions including the Louvre (Paris, 2023), Lafayette Anticipations (Paris, 2023), Centre Pompidou (Paris, 2022), WIELS (Brussels, 2022) and Kyoto Art Center (2019). He has also contributed to publications such as Kaleidoscope, Alphabet, Klima, Magma, The European Review of Books and The Brooklyn Rail.
Translator
Emma Ramadan is an educator and literary translator of all genres from French, with a focus on undersung women novelists, experimental literature, and writers from the Arab world. She is the recipient of the 2021 PEN Translation Prize, the 2018 Albertine Prize, two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, a PEN/Heim grant, and a Fulbright. Her translations include Sphinx, Not One Day, and In Concrete by Anne Garréta; A Country for Dying by Abdellah Taïa; Zabor, or the Psalms by Kamel Daoud; co-translations with Olivia Baes of The Easy Life and Me & Other Writing by Marguerite Duras; and Panics by Barbara Molinard. Her translations of Lamia Ziadé’s Mon port de Beyrouth and Ma très grande mélancolie arabe are forthcoming from Pluto Press.
Endorsements
"Excitement central that English speakers can finally meet one of the most extraordinary young fiction writers in the French language. Theo Casciani’s prose has both an exacting neutrality reminiscent of the Nouveau Roman and a Flauberian lushness almost ruddy with percolating details. Reading Retina is so strangely beautiful — like sharing someone else’s mind while watching his daydreams unfold like a hawk."
— Dennis Cooper
"Retina is a dazzling portrait of modern networked life. Casciani’s gaze shows us the horror of unmet connection smashed with the promise of collective euphoria."
— Stephanie LaCava
"It is a book for today — a novel of our time ... that plays upon the retina, saturated with images, where words become visions."
— Jean-Philippe Toussaint
"Is it possible to preserve emotional intimacy — love, in essence — in an environment of algorithmic coldness and constant visual saturation?
Retina is a remarkable example of “expanded literature”, and the closest thing to a catalogue of an exhibition by a master of the form: my beloved Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster."
— Enrique Vila-Matas
Original
French, Retine, Editions P.O.L., 2019
Specifications
110 × 170 mm
Paperback
ISBN
978-1-917913-10-2
Release
January, 2027