Timothée Demeillers

Jusqu’à la bête

To the Beast

August 31, 2019
Novel
160 pages
145 × 200 mm
16 €
9782918767718
978-2-9187-6771-8

“Fictions” collection

																Timothée Demeillers, Jusqu’à la bête
																Timothée Demeillers, Jusqu’à la bête

For 15 years, Erwan has been working in the cold room of a slaughterhouse, to the sound of carcasses smacking into each other. His life is one among many, all linked to this assembly-line, that, from slaughter to meatpacking, supplies supermarkets with ready-made kebabs. But Erwan doesn’t work there anymore: when the novel starts, he is in prison from where he tells his tragic story that of a man from working class driven to madness by his routine job.
Erwan speaks about the repetition of tasks, motions and discussions with his colleagues, the ever-accelerating pace… He remembers his youth, his hopes, his love story with Laëtitia, a former slaughterhouse worker like him, but also his anxiety attacks, that seem to worsen year after year. Jusqu’à la bête is the story of a young man made vulnerable by his work, a man who reached the tipping point and whose life is about to derail completely.

Prix du Jeune Romancier 2017 Le-Touquet-Paris-Plage Prix Calibre 47 2018
The author

Timothée Demeillers was born in Angers in 1984. He has lived in Prague, London and Paris. He now lives in the Parisian suburbs and works for the tourism industry. He speaks English and German fluently.
He is the author of Prague, faubourgs est and Jusqu’à la bête (prix du Deuxième Roman de Grignan, prix du Jeune Romancier, prix Calibre 47 and prix Hors Champ).

Strong points

A fully immersive book which makes you feel, see, smell, and hear the prisons (both the slaughterhouse and the proper prison) in which the character is locked up.

An original look at the hell of slaughterhouses perceived not only from the point of view of the animals’ suffering but also from the violence inflicted on the workers themselves.

A suspense maintained throughout the story that awakens empathy towards the main character.

Bibliography

Prague, faubourgs est (2014)

Demain la brume (2020)

August 31, 2019
Novel
160 pages
145 × 200 mm
16 €
9782918767718
978-2-9187-6771-8

“Fictions” collection